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ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI 



The Zigzag Series 

BY 

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. 



ZTGZAG JOURNEYS IN EUROPE. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN CLASSIC LANDS. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE ORIENT. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE OCCIDENT. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN NORTHERN LANDS. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN ACADIA. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE LEVANT. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN INDIA. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE AN7IP0DES. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE BRITISH 
ISLES. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN THE GREA T NORTH- 
WEST. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS IN AUSTRALIA. 

ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPP/. 



ESTES AND LAURIAT, Publishers, 

BOSTON, MASS. 



Zigzag Journeys 



ON 



THE MISSISSIPPI 



FROM CHICAGO TO THE ISLANDS OF THE 

DISCOVERY 



HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH 



FULLY ILLUSTRATED 



AUG 26 1892 



/y 

BOSTON ^ 

ESTES AND LAURIAT 

PUBLISHERS 

\ 



Copyright, 1892, 
By Estes and Lauriat. 






^^ 



John Wilson and Son, C/Vmp.ridge, U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 




T has been the purpose of the Zigzag books to 
enable young people to talk of the politics of dif- 
ferent nations intelligently; it is the aim of this 
volume to prepare its readers to discuss the mean- 
ing of the Great World's Fair of 1893, ^^^ the 
historical progress that the enterprise represents and illustrates. 
Hence it is a book of stories associated for the most part with the 
Columbian Discovery, with Chicago, and the Mississippi Valley. 

A few years ago the author of this series of books formed a 
Spanish Class for some young people in his home in Boston. The 
class was suggested to him by the difficulties that he had met on an 
excursion to Havana. After a winter of agreeable lessons with the 
class, he made a visit to the City of Mexico by the way of the 
Mississippi Valley and Laredo, and found the easy Spanish that 
he had learned of great service to him. This story-book is in- 
tended to suggest the importance of the study of Spanish literature, 
in view of our new commercial relations with the Republics of 
Mexico and of South America, as well as to prepare the way for 



8 PREFACE. 

an intelligent visit by young people to the Columbian Exposition. 
Like the other books of the series, a light narrative of fiction is 
made a medium of telling the stories and legends of interesting 
countries. 

The author is indebted to " Harper's Bazar," the " Ladies' Home 
Journal," and the " Youth's Companion " for permission to republish, 
stories that he had written for those periodicals ; and to Mrs. Mary 
A. Denison, of Washington, for an article, published in the " Youth's- 
Companion," on the " Columbus Doors of the Capitol." 

The publishers are indebted to Charles L. Webster and Co. for 
the use of numerous cuts illustrating the Mississippi Valley. 

H. B. 

28 Worcester Street, Boston, Mass. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. The Spanish Class 13 

II. The Spanish Class talks of a Journey 26 

III. The First America 32 

IV. The Ever Faithful Isle 38 

V. Arthur 59 

VI. Arthur's HoiME Museum and its Relation to the Journey .... 74 

VII. The Spanish Class. — Literary and Humorous Entertainments . . 83 

VIII. The Columbian Doors of the Capitol. — " C6mo se llama eso?" . 106 

IX. Chicago and the Great World's Fair 135 

X. The Land of Lincoln 164 

XI. St. Louis, the City of the Mounds and Parks 179 

XII. Story-telling on the Mississippi 186 

XIII. Story-telling on the Mississippi (^Continued') 203 

XIV. Carnivals and Legends, New Orleans 231 

XV. Among the Islands of the Great Discovery 263 

XVI. At the Tomb of Columbus 305 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

The Capitol, Washington . . Frontispiece 

Tailpiece 25 

Among the Thousand Islands .... 27 

Chapultepec 29 

Marquette and Joliet welcomed by the 

Indians 33 

La Salle in search of the Mouth of the 

Mississippi 34 

La Salle taking Possession of the Country 

for France 35 

La Salle on the Mississippi 36 

Indian Temple visited by La Salle . . 36 

Charles V 39 

Cardinal Ximenes 41 

PhiUp II 43 

Queen Isabella w 

Abdication of Charles V 48 

The Ghost of Greylock . . , .69 

A Florida Heron 75 

Curiosities of the Sea 79 

The White House, Washington . . . 107 

The White House, Rear Entrance . . 109 

The Washington Monument no 

The Treasury Building . . , . ' . . in 

The National Library 113 

The Columbian Doors of the Capitol . 114 

Columbus put in Irons 115 

Mount Vernon from the Potomac . . . 117 

Mount Vernon 120 



Along the Wharves, Georgetown . . . 
Washington's Tomb ....... 

Soldiers' Cemetery at Arlington . . . 
Ford's Theatre, where President Lincoln 

was assassinated 

House where the President died . . . 

Negro Quarters 

Washington Navy Yard 

First House in Chicago 

Wabash Avenue, Chicago, 1870 . . . 
The Administration Building, Columbian 

Exposition 

The Woman's Building 

The Horticultural Building 

Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building 

Galleries of Fine Arts 

Miners' and Mining Building . . . . 

The Government Building 

Machinery Hall 

New State House, Springfield, Illinois . 
The Lincoln Monument, Springfield, 111. 

Abraham Lincoln 

The Message of Life 

Learning the River 

Lafayette 

A Light-keeper 

A Tow 

Tailpiece 

A View in Minnesota ...... 



Page 
121 



12 



ILL USTRA TIONS. 



Page 

View on the River 189 

A Typical Old-timer 190 

A Mississippi Lumber-raft 192 

The " Baton Rouge " 197 

Tailpiece 202 

Initial. = 203 

Shipping on the Mississippi 204 

View of the River near Vicksburg . . . 205 

A Relic of the War 207 

In the Cotton-field 213 

A Picturesque View of the River . . . 219 

A Steamboat Explosion 225 

The Famous Run of the " Robert E. 

Lee" 227 

Initial 231 

The Crescent City 232 

Canal Street, New Orleans ..... 233 

Old-time Carnival Scene, New Orleans . 237 

The Spanish Fort near New Orleans . 239 

Mardi-Gras 240 

Mardi-Gras Feats of Chivalry .... 241 

Water-front, New Orleans 245 

Statue of Jackson, New Orleans . . . 247 

The University, New Orleans .... 248 
Marquette and Joliet crossing the Great 

Lakes 251 

Marquette and Joliet at Anchor on the 

Mississippi 252 

A Vision of the South 255 



Page 

De Soto 259 

De Soto's Expedition in Florida . . . 260 
De Soto seeing the Mississippi for the 

first Time .......... 261 

Burial of De Soto 262 

Tailpiece 262 

A Bit of Florida , 264 

Scenes in Florida 265 

The Old Gate, St. Augustine .... 267 

The Argonaut ' 268 

Lighthouse on the Florida Coast . . . 269 

" Colombvs Lygvr novi orbis reptor " . 272 

A Glimpse of Florida 275 

Florida, the Home of the Heron . . . 279 

Relics of Columbus 283 

Nassau Harbor 284 

House of a Cuban Planter ..... 287 

Islands of the Bahamas 291 

Capture of a Cuttle-fish 295 

A Giant Alligator 299 

Kingston Harbor, Jamaica ..... 303 

Cuban Beggar ' . . , 306 

Havana 307 

Statue of Columbus 309 

A Cuban Beauty 311 

Tomb of Columbus at Havana . . . . 314 

The Old Cathedral, Havana 315 

General View of the Alhambra . . . . 317 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 

HE Spanish Class had been conjugating the verb 
2>, meaning; " to go." One of the members had 
pronounced the first person plural of the present 
tense Varmouse, which had caused a smile. 

" If you pronounce your Spanish in that way," 
said the teacher, Mr. Green, " you will find yourself 
beyond the help of an interpreter in Spanish countries." 

" Let rrie hear you conjugate the verb, and I will do better in my 
next lesson," said the pupil. 




Mr. Green 


began : — 








Ir 


. . Togo. 






PreseJit. 


Preterite Definite. 


Voy . 


. I go {or am going). 


Fui . . 


. I went. 


Vas . 


. Thou goest. 


Fuiste . 


. Thou wentest. 


Va. . 


. He {or she) goes. 


Fu6 . . 


. He {or she) w 


Vamos 


. We go. 


Fuimos . 


. We went. 


Vais . 


. You go. 


Fuisteis . 


. You went. 


Van . 


. They go. 


Fueron . 


. They went. 



" That sounds like music," said the pupil. " I enjoy hearing you 
conjugate a Spanish verb as much as listening to a song. The Spanish 
language is like poetry. I have been told that my French would not 



14 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

be understood in France, nor my German in Germany. I wonder if 
my Spanish would be comprehended in Spanish countries, or whether 
the people whom I met would simply shake their heads and say, ' No 
comprendo,' or ' No entiendo,' or ' Hableme en Espagnol ? ' " 

" They would hardly comprehend ' varmouse,' " said Mr. Green. 
" But the pronunciation of the Spanish language so closely resembles 
the Latin, that even a Spanish Class like this would be well under- 
stood in Mexico, Cuba, and South America. If you were to say el 
pan ^ at the table, the servant would bring you bread ; or earned he 
would bring you meat, or camera^ mutton, or huevos^ eggs, or queso^ 
cheese, or agua^ water. Add to such words deme"' (give), as Deme 
te (Give tea), or Deme cafe (Give coffee), or Deme leche^ (Give milk), and 
you would easily find your wants supplied, though after a rude and 
childish manner." 

" That is very encouraging," said the pupil. " It would be much 
to be fairly understood." 

" Yes," answered Mr. Green, " so far ; but — " « 

" But ? " 

" Yes, like the man who was willing that his son should see the 
world, but was reluctant to have the world see his son, the Spanish- 
speaking people would be likely to understand your Spanish with its 
hard English accent and flavor; but it is probable that you would 
make a mortifying exhibition of ignorance when you tried to compre- 
hend them. You would talk a Latin-Spanish which would be intelli- 
gible, like a parrot ; but when your Spanish friends came to reply in 
melodious phrases, full of elegant expressions of courtesy, in which 
several words blended as in one, I fear that you would have — " 

" To varmouse'' added the pupil, quickly. 

" Or would wish to do so." 

" Are Spanish manners better than ours.'' " asked the pupil. 

1 pahn. 2 car'nay. ^ car-nay'roh. ^ hoo-ay'vos. 

^ kay'soh. *' ah'gwah. "^ day'may. ^ lay'tchay. 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 



15 



" Spanish hearts, in my opinion, are not better than ours. But 
we poor, money-making Americans have but a poor education in the 
outward forms of poHteiiess. A Mexican /^^/^ with his poHte address 
would be Hkely to put to shame an American millionaire." 

"How?" 

" Let me illustrate. I was in the City of Mexico a few months 
ago, and was introduced to the wife of an officer in the government 
service. I was interested in a beautiful Mexican singing-bird, called 
the Clarina, or Clarine. I had seen some of these birds at the 
flower-market on the plaza, near the Cathedral, and had heard a few 
of their clear, bell-like notes. Now, I am, as you know, a member of 
the Ornithological Society, and I had with me my card of member- 
ship. I showed my card to a Mexican friend, and he told me that a 
lady of rank had some beautiful birds in h^x patio, and among them 
the fluting clarinas. He said that he w^ould secure me an introduc- 
tion to her through her husband, and he did so. When the gate of 
her casa flew open to me, and revealed a patio of birds and flowers, 
and salas of statues and pictures, what do you think the lady said 
to me } " 

" Howdy ? " 

" No." 

" Buenas tardes, Sehor } " 

" No." 

" Are you a book-agent .? " 

" No. She said, ' I give you my house, Senor.' " 

"She did.?" 

" Yes ; and what would you have said in return ? " 

" I would have said, ' Thank you {gracias), I will take it. I have 
been looking for just such a house as this all my life. When will 
the deeds be ready } ' " 

" That would have been a characteristic American answer." 

" But what did jyou say.? " 



1 6 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" I put my hand on my heart so, and bowed so, and said, ' You do 
me great honor, Senora ; ' and then I bowed again, and she bowed, and 
began pouring out compUments upon me as sweet as a clarina's song." 

" And you did n't get a deed of the house, after all ? " 

" No. Every Mexican lady says to a well-introduced stranger, 
' My house is yours, Senor (or Sefiora).' " 

" And it does n't mean anything, after all? " 

" No. I would have been pleased had she said, ' I will give you 
one of my sweet-singing clarinas.' " 

" Did she ? " 

" Oh, no. I tried to hint to her that such a present would be 
acceptable." 

" What did she say .? " 

" She said that a very dear friend of hers had clarinas to sell, and 
that she would be pleased to make known to her my wishes. I asked 
her the price, and she said, ' T^n pesos — to an American.' " 

" So she was just like an American, after all, with all of her fine 
words ? " 

" No, — she really was more hospitable than most Americans. 
After showing me her birds, she said, ' My sala is yours.' I stepped 
into the sala, and was given the place of honor on a sofa. I ex- 
pressed my love of Spanish music, and she seated herself at the piano 
and sang ' La Paloma,' and afterward played a bolero, and sang the 
Mexican National Hymn. But let us return to the verb, Voy . . . 
I go." 

" Seiior Green," said the pupil, " I would like to become a better 
pupil in Spanish, and to go to Mexico. When nearly one half of the 
people of the American continent speak Spanish, why is not that lan- 
guage taught in our schools ? Why do we not study Spanish instead 
of the continental languages of Europe ? " 

" Education has its fashions, as well as society. In view of the 
reciprocity treaties with Mexico and South America ; of the great 



I 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 17 

railroad that is to connect all of the North and South American Re- 
publics, of the subsidized steamers to South American ports, and of 
the Nicaraguan Canal, the Spanish language must of necessity be- 
come a part of our system of education. It will soon be the language 
of trade, as well as of art, music, and poetry. So you see what an in- 
centive you have to study it well, and not varmouse too speedily." 

The members of the Spanish Class consisted of Mr. Green, the 
teacher. Miss Green, Misses Brown and Gray, and Mr. Diaz, who be- 
longed to an American-Spanish family. They were young people, 
and intimate friends ; and the class met twice a week in the parlors of 
Mr. and Mrs. Green, the parents of Miss Green, who often passed an 
hour with them after a recitation. 

It was the usage of the class to have literary exercises in Spanish 
history, art, or music after each recitation. To these exercises they 
sometimes invited their friends. Mr. Green often sfave recitations 
from the " Cid " or " Don Quixote." Misses Brown and Gray played 
the mandolin, and Mr. Diaz the guitar. Readings from Prescott's 
" Conquest of Peru," " Conquest of Mexico," and " Ferdinand and 
Isabella," from Irving's " Conquest of Granada " and " Columbus," 
from Barlow's " Columbiad," and Lockhart's " Spanish Ballads," and 
Mrs. Hemans's historical poems of Spain, formed a part of these 
entertainments. 

But the favorite selections of the class, which -were asked for 
again and again by their friends, were a musical rendering of the 
always popular " Spanish Cavalier," with piano accompaniment to two 
mandolins, a mandolin solo called "The Spanish Fantasy," and a 
humorous reading by Miss Brown, entitled " The Spanish Duel." 

It may be that some of my young readers will like to form a 
Spanish Class like the one we are describing, and we may say that 
this picture is very nearly from real life. So I will present from 
time to time some of the literary exercises of the class ; and we 
will close this chapter by copying the favorite humorous selection, 
" The Spanish Duel," of unknown authorship : — 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



MAGDALENA, OR THE SPANISH DUEL. 

Near the city of Sevilla, 

Years and years ago, 
Dwelt a lady in a villa, 

Years and years ago ; 
And her hair was black as night, 
And her eyes were starry bright ; 
Olives on her brow were blooming, 
Roses red her lips perfuming, 
And her step was light and airy 
As the tripping of a fairy; 
When she spoke, you thought, each minute, 
'T was the trilling of a linnet ; 
When she sang, you heard a gush 
Of full-voiced sweetness like a thrush ; 
And she struck from the guitar 
Ringing music, sweeter far 
Than the morning breezes make 
Through the lime-trees when they shake, — 
Than the ocean murmuring o'er 
Pebbles on the foamy shore. 
Orphaned both of sire and mother 

Dwelt she in that lonely villa, 
Absent now her guardian brother 

On a mission from Sevilla. 
Skills it little now the telling 

How I wooed that maiden fair, 
Tracked her to her lonely dwelling 

And obtained an entrance there. 
Ah ! that lady of the villa — 

And I loved her so. 
Near the city of Sevilla, 
Years and years ago. 
Ay de mi ! — Like echoes falling 

Sweet and sad and low. 
Voices come at night, recalling 

Years and years ago 

Once again I 'm sitting near thee, 

Beautiful and bright : 
Once again I see and hear thee 

In the autumn night ; 
Once again I 'm whispering to thee 

Falterin"- words of love ; 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 

Once again with song I woo tliee 

In tlie orange grove 
Growing near that lonely villa 

Where the waters flow 
Down to the city of Se villa — 

Years and years ago. 

'Twas an autumn eve ; the splendor 

Of the day was gone, 
And the twilight, soft and tender, 

Stole so gently on 
That the eye could scarce discover 
How the shadows, spreading over. 

Like a veil of silver gray, 
Toned the golden clouds, sun-painted. 
Till they paled, and paled, and fainted 

From the face of heaven away. 
And a dim light, rising slowly, 

O'er the welkin spread, 
Till the blue sky, calm and holy, 

Gleamed above our head ; 
And the thin moon, newly nascent, 

Shone in glory meek and sweet, 
As Murillo paints her crescent 

Underneath Madonna's feet. 
And we sat outside the villa 

Where the waters flow 
Down to the city of Sevilla — 

Years and years ago. 

There we sate — the mighty river 

Wound its serpent course along 
Silent, dreamy Guadalquivir, 

Famed in many a song. 
Silver gleaming 'mid tlie plain 

Yellow with the golden grain, 
Gliding down through deep, rich meadow 

Where the sated cattle rove. 
Stealing underneath the shadows 

Of the verdant olive grove : 
With its plentitude of waters, 

Ever flowing calm and slow, 
Loved by Andalusia's daughters, 

Sung by poets long ago. 



20 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Seated half within a bower 
Where the languid evening breeze 

Shook out odors in a shower 
From oranges and citron trees, 

Sang she from a romancero, 
How a Moorish chieftain bold 

Fought a Spanish caballero 
By Sevilla's walls of old ; 

How they battled for a lady, 
Fairest of the maids of Spain, — 

How the Christian's lance, so steady. 
Pierced the Moslem through the brain. 

Then she ceased ; her black eyes, moving, 

Flashed, as asked she with a smile, 
'• Say, are maids as fair and loving. 
Men as faithful, in your isle ? " 

" British maids," I said, " are ever 
Counted fairest of the fair ; 

Like the swans on yonder river 
Moving with a stately air. 

" Wooed not quickly, won not lightly, 
But when won, forever true ; 

Trial draws the bond more tightly. 
Time can ne'er the knot undo." 

•' And the men ? " — " Ah ! dearest lady, 
Are — quien sabe ? who can say ? 

To make love they 're ever ready. 

Where they can and where they may ; 

" Fixed as waves, as breezes steady 
In a changeful April day — 

Como brisas, como rios. 

No se sabe, sabe Dios." 

" Are they faithful ? " — " Ah ! quien sabe ? 
Who can answer that they are ? 
While we may we should be happy." — 

Then I took up her guitar, 
And I sang in sportive strain, 
This song to an old air of Spain. 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 2 1 

QuiEN Sabe ? 



"The breeze of the evening that cools the hot air, 
That kisses the orange and shakes out thy hair, 
Is its freshness less welcome, less sweet its perfume. 
That you know not the region from which it is come ? 
Whence the wind blows, where the wind goes. 
Hither and thither and whither — who knows ? 

Who knows ? 
Hither and thither — but whither — who knows ? 



■ The river forever glides singing along, , 

The rose on the bank bends down to its song ; 
And the flower, as it listens, unconsciously dips, 
Till the rising wave glistens and kisses its lips. 
But why the wave rises and kisses the rose, 
And why the rose stoops for those kisses — who knows ? 

Who knows ? 
And away flows the river — but whither — who knows ? 



ni. 

" Let j?ie be the breeze, love, that wanders along 
The river that ever rejoices in song ; 
Be thou to my fancy the orange in bloom, 
The rose by the river that gives its perfume. 
Would the fruit be so golden, so fragrant the rose, 
If no breeze and no wave were to kiss them .? Who knows ? 

Who knows ? 
If no breeze and no wave were to kiss them? Who knows 1" 

As I sang, the lady listened. 

Silent save one gentle sigh : 
When I ceased, a tear-drop glistened 

On the dark fringe of her eye. 

Then my heart reproved the feeling 

Of that false and heartless strain 
W'hich I sang in words concealing 

What my heart would liide in vain. 



2 2 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Up I sprang. What words were uttered 
Bootless now to think or tell, — 

Tongues speak wild when hearts are fluttered 
By the mighty master spell. 

Love, avowed with sudden boldness, 
Heard with flushings that reveal, 

Spite of woman's studied coldness. 

Thoughts the heart cannot conceal. 

Words half-vague and passion-broken, 
Meaningless, yet meaning all 

That the lips have left unspoken, 
That we never may recall. 

" Magdalena, dearest, hear me," 

Sighed I, as I seized her hand — 

" Hola ! Sefior," very near me, 

Cries a voice of stern command. 

And a stalwart caballero 

Comes upon me with a stride, 

On his head a slouched sombrero, 
A toledo by his side. 

From his breast he flung his capa 
With a stately Spanish air — 

(On the whole, he looked the chap a 
Man to slight would scarcely dare.) 

"Will your worship have the goodness 
To release that lady's hand .?" 

" Senor," I replied, " this rudeness 
I am not prepared to stand. 

" Magdalena, say — " The maiden, 
With a cry of wild surprise, 

As with secret sorrow laden, 

Fainting sank before my eyes. 

Then the Spanish caliallero 

Bowed with haughty courtesy, 

Solemn as a tragic hero. 

And announced himself to me. 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 

'Senor, I am Don Camillo 
Guzman Miguel Pedrillo 
De Xymenes y Ribera 

Y Santallos y Herrera 

Y de Rivas y Alendoza 

Y Ouintana y de Rosa 

Y Zorilla y — " '' No more, sir, 
'T is as good as twenty score, sir," 

Said I to liim, witli a frown ; 
" Mucha bulla para nada, 
No palabras, draw your 'spada ; 
If you 're up for a duello 
You will find I 'm just your fellow — 

Senor, I am Peter Brown ! " 

By the river's bank that night, 

Foot to foot in strife, 
Fought we in the dubious light 

A fight of death or life. 

Don Camillo slashed my shoulder, 
With the pain I grew the bolder. 

Close and closer still I pressed ; 
Fortune favored me at last, 
I broke his guard, my weapon passed 

Through the caballero's breast — 
Down to the earth went Don Camillo 
Guzman Miguel Pedrillo 
De Xymenes y Ribera 

Y Santallos y Herrera 

Y de Rivas y Mendoza 

Y Ouintana y de Rosa 

Y Zorilla y — One groan. 
And he lay motionless as stone. 
The man of many names went down, 
Pierced by the sword of Peter Brown ! 

Kneeling down, I raised his head ; 
The caballero faintly said : 
" Senor Ingles, fly from Spain 
With all speed, for you have slain 
A Spanish noble, Don Camillo 
Guzman Miguel Pedrillo 
De Xymenes y Ribera 

Y Santallos y Herrera 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Y de Rivas y Mendoza 

Y Ouintana y de Rosa 

Y Zorilla y — " He swooned 
With the bleeding from his wound. 
If he be living still, or dead, ' 

I never knew, I ne'er shall know. 
That night from Spain in haste I fled, 
Years and years ago. 

Oft when autumn eve is closing, 

Pensive, puffing a cigar, 
In my chamber lone reposing. 
Musing half, and half a-dozing, 

Comes a vision from afar 
Of that lady of the villa 
In her satin, fringed mantilla. 
And that haughty caballero 
With his capa and sombrero, 
Vainly in my mind revolving 

That long, jointed, endless name : 
'T is a riddle past my solving, 

Who he was or whence he came. 
Was he that brother home returned ? 
Was he some former lover spurned ? 
Or some {■xnvA^ fiance 
That the lady did not fancy ? 
Was he any one of those ? 
Sabe Dios. Ah 1 God knows. 

Sadly smoking my manilla. 
Much I long to know 

How fares the lady of the villa 
That once charmed me so. 

When I visited Sevilla 
Years and years ago. 

Has she married a Hidalgo? 

Gone the way that ladies all go 

lu those drowsy Spanish cities. 

Wasting life — a thousand pities — 

Waking up for a fiesta 

From an afternoon siesta, 

To " Giralda " now repairing, 

Or the Plaza fcr an airing ; 

At the shaded rcjn flirting. 

At a bull-fight now disporting ; 



THE SPANISH CLASS. 



?S 



Does slie walk at evenings ever 
Through the gardens by the river ? 
Guarded by an old duenna 
Fierce and sharp as a hyena, 
With her goggles and her fan 
Warning off each wicked man ? 
Is she dead, or is she living ? 
Is she for my absence grieving ? 
Is she wretched, is she happy? 
Widow, wife, or maid ? Ouien sabe ? 




CHAPTER II. 



THE SPANISH CLASS TALKS OF A JOURNEY. 




HE reason for the forming of our Spanish Class 
may be of interest to the reader. Mr. Green was 
a teacher, and had travelled in Mexico, and Mr. 
Diaz was a lover of Spanish art ; but Misses Brown 
and Gray originated the class, and called to their 
instruction the accomplished Mr. Green and Mr. 
Diaz. The four studied for a time, with only Mr. and Mrs. Green 
and little Arthur Green to note their progress. Mr. Green and his 
wife at first accompanied their daughter and son Arthur to the 
class meetings at the houses of the young ladies and Mr. Diaz, as 
specially invited guests. They were prosperous people, and soon 
became so much interested in the class as to invite the meeting 
to their parlors, and to suggest that entertainments in Spanish music 
and literature follow the lessons of the class. These entertainments 
came to be attended by the special friends of the four pupils, and 
the meetings of the class at last formed quite a social feature of 
the communitv. 

Misses Brown and Gray had been promised by their fathers a 
vacation tour in Europe. Among the countries that they had 
planned to visit was Spain, or Andalusia. They had read Irving's 
" Alhambra," and had pictured to themselves the beauties of the 
Valley of the Darro. To prepare for this visit they had taken up 
the study of colloquial Spanish, and so formed the class. 



THE SPANISH CLASS TALKS OF A JOURNEY. 



27 



Little Arthur Green was not a member of the class, but attended 
the meetings by permission, 

Mr. Green, the teacher, a cousin of the Green family, often spoke 



r^ 







to the class 
of the beau- 
ties and an- 
y' tiquities of Mexico, and 
^ ?'''"'' Mr. Diaz of his visits to 

Cuba and Caracas. At 
one of the meetings, 
when Mr. Green had been describine 
the poetic antiquities of the Valley of 
Mexico, such as the Sacrificial Stone, 
the Shield of Montezuma II., and the 
mysterious inscriptions in the grand 
Museum near the President's Palace, Mr. Green, the father of Miss 
Green and Arthur, said, — 

" Mexico is the American Egypt, and the Gulf of Mexico our 
Mediterranean. What in all the world can be more interesting than 
the pyramids of this ancient land.'* I would rather see the ruins 



AMONG THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 



28 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

of the halls of the Montezumas than the temples of the Pharaohs ! 
If I were to travel, I would begin in my own land. I would go to 
the Great Lakes, to the Thousand Islands, to the Valley of the 
Mississippi, and to the Gulf and the table-lands of Mexico. I would 
see the Islands of the Discovery, and the tomb of Columbus in 
Havana. I would travel first at home, and then abroad." 

" Therg would be but little to surprise an American abroad after 
he had seen his own lands," said Mr. Diaz. " The Valley of the 
City of Mexico is more beautiful than Italy. The Sierra Madre 
is more grand than the Apennines, and Popocatepetl than Vesuvius. 
Nothing on earth can exceed the beauty of the paseo of the City of 
Mexico, from the official palace to Chapultepec, with its statues of 
the Montezumas and ancient and modern heroes. The sky is azure ; 
the air is a living splendor; the mountains which glisten with snow 
an eternal glory. No birds can sing sweeter than the clarinas ; no 
roses are more luxuriant than the Mexican, — there are said to be a 
hundred varieties. In Mexico everything seems to live. Romance is 
there. One dreams of the Toltecs, the Aztecs, the Montezumas, 
the Viceroys, and the Dons. Here caciques were tortured for 
gold ; here came the Viceroys, and among them the poetic Salvia- 
tierra and the romantic Galves. The latter lifted the white pile of 
Chapultepec into the clear air, and gave the name to the Texan 
city of Galveston. Here Cortes came, and wept on the sad night 
near the wonderful walls, under the cypress. At Guadeloupe the 
angels were believed to have been heard singing in the air. You 
may not believe the legend, but it shows a poetic mind. The so- 
called " Halls of the Montezumas " may be airy imaginings, and the 
pyramids vanishing ruins, but where else can we find such scenic 
splendors and poetic charms ? Mexico only needs education to make 
her the most lovely country in the world." 

"You and Mr. Green would almost make one give up one's 
purpose of first travelling abroad," said Miss Brown. 






THE SPANISH CLASS TALKS OF A JOURXEY. 



29 



" I would rather go to the tomb of Columbus than to the tombs 
of the old European kings," said Mr. Green, Senior. " Now I have 
a proposal to make to the Spanish Class. My wife and I are be- 
coming gray-haired. I have been quite successful in my business, 
as you well know. If the class will make a tour with my wife and 
me to Chicago, St. Louis, and down the Mississippi Valley to New 
Orleans and Tampa, and through the Islands of the Discovery to 




CHAPULTEPEC. 



the tomb of Columbus, I will pay all of the expenses. I will study 
Spanish with you on our way, and will take my boy Arthur as my 
special company. What do you all say } " 

"You are very kind, Mr. Green," said Miss Brown; "but we have 
our European journey already planned." 

" Go to Europe another year. See our own Rhine Valley, our 
own Mediterranean first. I have worked hard for many years, and 
it would make me perfectly happy to go on such a journey with a 



30 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

party of young people like you. I will treat you all with the 
crenerosity, so far as I am able, of a 'fine old English gentleman.' 
You shall want for nothing that I can supply." 

" You will even give us rooms in the old palace hotel of the 
Iturbide.^" said Mr. Green, the teacher. 

" Yes, if my purse is deep enough for that." 

Miss Brown was silent. She could not forget that custom went 
to Europe. Miss Gray did not speak; but little Arthur Green looked 
over the back of his mother's chair, and gave a persuasive glance at 
each of the young ladies, and then pointed down to his mother, who 
did not see him. 

Poor Mrs. Green ! How beautiful and patient she looked ! Her 
hair was gray, her face very white. She had struggled with her 
husband in the days when their means were small. As the family 
became prosperous, one after another of her children had died, until 
only one daughter and little Arthur were left. 

Her bereavements made her a mother to every one. She worked 
in the church, the hospital, everywhere that she was needed. She 
had never sought pleasure at popular resorts. Her heart was always 
engaged in quiet duties. 

The picture of Arthur pointing down from the high chair to his' 
mother's gray hair was persuasive. 

" Let us go to the Mississippi Valley and Mexico," said Miss Brown. 

" Yes," answered Miss Gray. " Let us go there first, and how 
grateful we ought to be for such an opportunity ! Mr. Green, we 
thank you." 

" Did ever a prince have such subjects.''" said Mr. Green, quoting 
Withington. 

" Did ever a subject have such a prince } " said Miss Brown, 
quoting from the same old story. 

"And now," said Mr. Green, "let us hear again the Mexican 
National Hymn. That shall celebrate our decision." 



THE SPANISH CLASS TALKS OF A JOURNEY. 



The Mexican National Hymn is indeed a patriotic inspiration. 
Seldom has grand national music been wedded to such noble words. 
The Mexicans themselves are very proud of it. The Government 
allows it to be played only on patriotic occasions and at pfesidential 
receptions. It is always played to announce the coming and reception 
of the President. 

The class were good singers, and the quartette made the parlors 
ring with the thrilling inspiration. 

The words and music must have interest to our readers, and 
especially to any who are studying Spanish, and have not seen them, 
or to any about to enter a Spanish class. The song is very effective 
for concert use, and may be sung in Spanish-Mexican costume. 



NATIONAL HYMN. 



CORO. 

Mexicanos, al grito de guerra 
El acero aprestad y el briddn, 

Y retiemble en sus centres \\ tierra, 
Al sonoro rugir del canon. 

Cina joh patria ! tus .siencs de oliva 
De la paz el arcangle divino, 
Que en el cielo tu eterno dcstino 
Por el dedo de Dios se escribid. 

Mas si osare un extrano enemigo 
Profanar con su planta tu cuelo, 
Piensa joh patria querida ! ciue el cielo 
Un soldado en cada hijo te did. 

CoRO. 

En sangrientos combates los viste, 
Por tu amor palpitando sus senos, 
Arrostrar la metralla serenos, 

Y la muerte 6 la gloria buscar. 

Si el recuerdo de antiguas hazanas 
De tus hijos inflama la mente, 
Los laureles del triunfo tu frente 
Volverdn inmortales d ornar. 

CORO. 



Chorus. 
At the loud cry of war all assemble, 

Then your swords and your steeds all prepare; 
And the earth to its centre shall tremble, 

When the cannon's deep roar rends the air. 

Oh ! my country, entwine on thy temples 
Boughs of olive so fresh and so vernal, 
When inscribed in the heavens eternal 

Blessed peace for all the land thou dost see. 

But if stranger and foe in their boldness 
Dare to tread on thy soil, they must perish. 
Then, oh! my country, this thought only cherish; 

Every son is but a soldier for thee. 

Chorus. 

Thou hast seen them in deadliest battle, 
Love for thee their proud bosoms inflati 
Stand serenely, the bullet awaiting. 

Even joyful seeking glory or death. 

If the mem'ry of those Ancient combats 
Fill thy sons with a zeal that is burning, 
Will they, with laurels of triumph returning, 

Sing thy glory with their last feeble breath. 

Chorus. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FIRST AMERICA. 




HE tour that we have planned," said Mr. Green, 
Senior, after one of the lessons of the Spanish 
Class, " is really to early First America. Latin 
America had a hundred years of thrilling his- 
tory before the coming of the ' Mayflower.' This 
history is associated with the islands of the 
Spanish main, Mexico, and Florida, and later, in the seventeenth 
century, with the great Mississippi Valley. So we are going to old 
America. 

" Champlain saw Lake Huron in 1615; and Nicollet Lake 
Michigan in 1634. The first Europeans to see the Illinois were 
Marquette and Joliet in 1673. They were hailed by the Indians 
with peace-pipes, as they ascended the Illinois River. Would that 
the prophecies of those peace-pipes had been fulfilled ! 

" After them came La Salle and Tonti, zigzagging on the stream 
towards the Mississippi. La Salle gathered the Indian tribes around 
a fort called St. Louis, near what is now Starved Rock. Kaskaskia 
was founded as a mission, and so the evolution of the empire of the 
great Mississippi Valley began. The country was governed from 
Quebec and New Orleans. 

" The great valley saw the French flag, the Spanish flag, and 
the English flag rise and disappear. It saw the romantic mission of 
Kaskaskia rise, ring its bells, and vanish. The Illini were starved to 



THE FIRST AMERICA. 



33 



death at old Fort St. Louis, by being surrounded by their enemies, — 
one of the most dramatic events of any history ; for the old tribes 
perished with thirst and fever, with the lovely Illinois flowing full 
in view. 

"The romances of the great Mississippi Valley remain to be 
written. No romancer or poet has touched them, no composer 
sung them. 

" If we bound the Valley by the Alleghanies on 
one side, and the Rocky Mountains on the, other, what 0|ll 

a stupendous em- vMxi 

pire it is! Any 
of the leading 
countries of Eu- 
rope would be 
lost in it ! New 
France in Amer- 
ica was immense- 
ly greater than 
old France, and 
the new Spain 
of our Continent 
than old Spain. 
England and 
Scotland would 




MARQUETTE AND JOLIET WELCOMED 
BY THE INDIANS. 



be mere dots on this magnificent territory. llM't ^^\\ 

" Narvaez of the expedition of De Soto visited Louisiana in 1542, 
in his rude brigantines ; and earlier by two years Coronado had rested 
by the Moqui pueblos. So you see we are going through the valleys 
of the First America. And when travel becomes a part of our system 
of American education, this is the first tour that the student should 
make." 

" So we must all study hard," said Arthur. " Como se llama eso } " 

3 



34 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



(What do you call this?) he asked of Miss Gray, holding up a rail- 
road ticket. 

" No comprendo, Senor," answered Miss Gray. 

" Then how do you expect we shall ever get there ? " asked 
Arthur, good-humoredly. 

"No comprendo, Sefior (I do not understand)." 




















LA SALLE IN SEARCH OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



" Deme usted un cerillo," said Arthur, "and I will retire." 

" No comprendo, Sefior." 

" Adios," said Arthur; and the class in chorus replied, — 

" Buenas noches ! " 

Although Arthur was not a member of the class, he learned much 
by listening to the others; and his little jokes often stimulated study. 
He often asked questions of Mr. Green, the teacher, about the 
language. 

" I would not like to be swindled when I am in Cuba," he said 



THE FIRST AMERICA. 



35 



'One day to Mr. Green, after an hour with the class. " What is a 
dollar in Spanish ? " 

" Un peso," ^ said Mr. Green. 




LA SALLE TAKING POSSESSION OF THE COUNTRY FOR FRANCE. 



" And a quarter of a dollar ? " 
■' A real is twelve and a half cents ; dos reaCes would be twenty- 
hve cents, and cuatro reales fifty cents. A one-cent piece is called 
ientavo, six and a quarter cents arc called a medio, and one dollar 
in gold, esciidito de oror 

" What are the Spanish words for ' how much '? " 

" Simply the word ' quanto.' " 

" ' Gracias, Senor.' Is that ric^ht ? " 

1 pa 'so. 



36 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 




LA SALLE ON THE MISSISSIPPL 



'"Si, Senor,' or more politely, ' Mil gracias (A thousand thanks), 

Senor '." 

In preparation 

for his visit to 
the great Mis- 
sissippi Valley, 
Arthur read the 
works of Park- 
man, and the 
History of the 
Civil War. Park- 
man's " Life of 
La Salle " and 
the " Pioneers of 
^'^-' J France in the 
New World" 
opened to him a 
vision of wonderful hi'story of which he had never before dreamed. 

" I love to travel in imagination," he said one day to his 
father; "and 
whether I real- 
ly go on this 
journey or not, 
I have already 
bcc7t in anticipa- 
tion, and have 
liad a real good 
time." 

The class 
had first enter- 
tained the plan 
of taking Mex- 




^mmmm 






'\^-'>->' •' "-^^^-^^HfiBIiBE 



INDIAN TEMPLE VISITED BY LA SALLE. 



THE FIRST AMERICA. 



37 



ico into their journey, but finally decided to go only to those Mexi- 
can places that are directly associated with the Columbian Discovery 
and the World's Fair, Chicago, the Mississippi Valley, and the Spanish 
Main. Mr. Green fere gave up the purpose of going to glorious old 
Mexico reluctantly, but saw that it would be well to follow strictly 
historical lines in the educational journey, which he hoped to make a 
useful as well as entertaining outing. He saw the future in the pres- 
ent of all that enters into young people's lives, and so arranged the 
journey with the historical impression in view. 




CHAPTER IV. 

THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 
Romances of the Columbian Seas. — " Crazy Jane." — The Great American Legend: 

"^T^HEN Arthur Green saw the prospect of making a 
tour through the Mississippi Valley to the Co- 
lumbian Seas and Islands of the Discovery, he be- 
came a student of books that pictured the old 
history of these places. He read Prescott and 
Janvier. He bought a Spanish phrase-book, and 
began the study of a Spanish grammar. He read the story of the Cid, 
and asked that his Christmas present might be a Spanish -edition of 
" Don Quixote." He had read Irving's works on Spanish history 
before he had thought of the Mexican journey. 

He would greet his sister in the morning with a light, happy, ban- 
tering jargon of Spanish words, somewhat as follows : — 

" Buenos dias, Senorita! ^ (Good-day!) Cdmo esta usted.'' '-^ (How 
arc you ? ) Que hora es ? ^ (What time is it ? ) " 

To such salutations and interrogations his sister would commonly 
answer, " Si, Serior,"or" Si, Caballcro," without regard to the fitness of 
the musical words to the question. 

His mother, although a quiet home woman, was a reader of the best 
books. In his historical reading he found in her an interested and 
intelligent adviser. 

' liuay'nohs dec'ahs, sain-yo re'ta. - Co'nioh es-tah' oos-tayth'.'' ^ Kay oh'rah ess .'' 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 



39 



He one day heard Mr. Diaz speak of Cuba as "the ever faithful 
isle." The expression is poetic, and excites curiosity ; and he asked 
his mother its meaning. 

" It is a title which the Spanish Court and people were proud to 
bestow upon Cuba," said Mrs. Green, " because the island has always 
been faithful to the Spanish Crown. Cuba was not the first name 
given to the island; Columbus named it Juana." 

"After 'Crazy Jane,'" said Mr. Green. " It was a very appro- 
priate name. She was as faithful as the island of Cuba has been." 

" Crazy Jane } " The name suggested a story. Who was Juana, or 
" Crazy Jane," and how had she been so faithful } 



STORY OF CRAZY JANE, THE DAUGHTER OF ISABELLA. 

" I will tell you," said Mrs. Green, in answer to such inquiries. 
"Juana, or ' Crazy Jane ' as she has been thoughtlessly called, — for it 
seems to me unkind to refer to the infirmities of such a woman 
in that way, — was a daughter of Isabella, and the mother of Charles 
V. . You must read Robertson's ' Charles V.' She lost her mind 
when a young woman, and she 
watched over the dead body of her 
husband for nearly half a century, 
and took no interest in the great 
history that the world was then mak- 
ing. So you see she was faithful to 
him'' 

" Who was her husband } " asked 
Arthur. 

" Philip the Handsome, Arch-duke 
of Austria." 

" Was Juana beautiful ? " 

" No, she was plain, poor woman ; and this was one of the causes 
that overthrew her mind, and made her melancholy." 




^O ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" But she was great ? " 

" Yes, as the mother of Charles V." 

" I am interested in this woman, whose name was given to Cuba. 
You say that she was great as the mother of Charles V. Who was 
Charles V ? " 

" He was an Emperor of Germany, born at Ghent in 1500, eight 
years after the discovery of America by Columbus. He was an heir to 
the Spanish throne ; and when he was sixteen years of age he became 
Kino- of Spain, reigning in place of his mother, Juana, who wished 
for no kingdom but the tomb of her husband. The famous diplomat 
Ximenes was the leading mind in the state during the reign of the young 
kino:. At the aQ:e of nineteen he succeeded to the throne of Ger- 
many, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1520, and received from 
the Pope the title of Emperor of Rome. He was the Emperor of 
the days of the Reformation. It was in 1 521, in the early part of his 
reign, that the Diet at Worms was called, which may be said to have 
changed the religious and political events of the world." 

" I now begin to see his place in history," said Arthur. " He was 
the Emperor of the days of Luther. He conquered the world." 

" A great part of the European world," said Mrs. Green. " He 
subdued Castile, overcame the Turks, drove the French from Italy, 
made Francis I. a prisoner, and while yet a youth became master 
of continental Europe. At the age of twenty-five the son of un- 
happy Juana was king among kings, and the greatest emperor in the 
world." 

" Did his mother share the glory ? " asked Arthur. 

"No; only in fame. She took no interest in these events; and 
the knowledge that she was the mother of the Emperor of the world 
never brought a smile to her face. Her heart had been crushed in her 
young years, and it seemed to have become incapable of happiness or 
affection." 

" What became of Charles V..?" asked Arthur. 




CARDINAL XIMENES. 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 



43 



" He took Rome by storm, plundered it, and made a prisoner of 
the Pope. War followed war, in which he was generally successful. 
But in middle life he became a victim of the melancholy of his mother, 
gave up his throne to his son, and retired to a monastery, where he 




PHILIP II, 



passed two years in dejection, gloom, and the renunciation of all 
things. In this darkness he died. He was the father of Philip II. 
of Spain." 

" Philip II. ? " asked Arthur. " He had a strange history." 
" Brilliant and dark," said Mrs. Green. " You must read Prcscott. 
Philip was cold, haughty, and politic from his childhood. He inherited 
the melancholy of his blood, and the shadow was apparent in his early 



44 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



years. He was not like other boys. His teachers could not mould 
him. He was the heartless husband of ' Bloody Mary,' or Mary 
Tudor; and Mexico and Peru and the Spanish main were a part of 
his vast dominions." 




QUEEN ISABELLA. 



" He was the king who caused the fitting out of the Invincible 
Armada.?" 

" Yes, and the one who set in order the Inquisition. His reli- 
gious zeal injured the very cause he espoused, and he left a dark name 
on his age. He was very religious but very cruel, and his character 
was one of singular contradictions." ' 

" But," said Arthur, " tell me now the story of Juana." 

" I know of no story in history that is more pathetic," said Mrs. 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 45 

Green. " When Columbus visited the Court of Isabella, he must 
have met there a dark, plain-looking girl, who was interesting only 
from the position that she would be likely to occupy in the world. 
But she was the daughter of Isabella, and the hope of the royal family ; 
and these associations must have impressed the mind of Columbus. 
Of all the islands of the great discovery, Cuba, as it is now called, was 
the most wonderful and beautiful ; and to this crown jewel of the 
Western seas Columbus gave the name of J nana. 

" The unhappiness of the young princess arose from disappointed 
love. She married while very young, and loved her husband with a 
passion that consumed her mind and heart. He did not return her 
love. With him the marriage was merely a political event. He was 
very handsome ; she was homely. Her devotion to him disgusted 
him, and he neglected her. But notwithstanding his neglect and 
aversion, her love for him becam.e her life. Fame was nothing, power 
was nothing, family ties nothing, if she might have the heart of Philip. 
Her only desire in life was for his love. She was a beggar for his 
affection, and for that only. In comparison with his love, kingdoms 
were mere earth to her, and crowns were dust. She followed him 
everywhere ; his smile was her joy, and his neglect her misery. 

" He was untrue to her in every way. She knew it, but would not 
admit it. Whatever he might be or do, she was resolved to be true 
to him ; and she was true. 

"She pained Isabella by her want of interest in affairs of state. 
The Court saw her morbid conduct with anxiety. She was a slave to 
a passion so absorbing as to unfit her to become a true queen. 

" The crisis came : Philip died. Her heart seemed to die with him. 
She caused his dead body to be kept in her room for a long time, in 
hope that it would revive. She followed it from one part of the 
country to another, on its long journey to the tomb, watching over 
it by night under the moon and stars, and once causing the coffin to 
be opened in the vain hope that life would return. Mrs. Moulton, in 
a short poem, thus tells the touching story : — 



46 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



THE VIGIL OF QUEEN JUANA. 

Over the desert ways, 

The yellow sands of Spain, 

Wandered through weary days 
The mad Queen, '' Crazy Jane ; " 

Walking beside the bier 

Whereon he lay, at last, 
Philippe le Bel, her dear, 

False lord, by Death held fast. 

Daughter of noble race. 
Anointed Queen of Spain, 

In her unsheltered face 
Daslied the unpitying rain. 

By the fierce sun opprest 

She sought no green, soft nook, — 
She laid her down to rest 
^ Beside no babbling brook. 

Straight on through day and night 

SJie held her lonely way, 
For whom no fresh delight 

Could spring, by night or day. 

Through sad Life's loss and pain 
She loved, whom Love forgot, 

Till Death restored again 
Her lord who loved her not. 

To Tordesillas-height 

She bore her dead so dear, 

And there, by day and night, 
Watched still beside his bier. 

Till forty-seven long years 
Of watching and despair, 

Of weariness and tears, 
Had found and left her there; 

And t!ien, grown old and gray, 
Feeble and scant of breath. 

The mad Queen passed away 
To the vast realm of Death. 



THE EVER FAirHEUL fSLE. 47 

Found she her own again ? 

Did he who worked her woe 
Reward her life's long pain 

With bh'ss that none can know ? 

The h'ps of Death are dumb. 

The answer who can tell ? 
No news shall ever come 

If they be ill or well. 



" Juana watched by the dead body of Philippe le Bel (or Philip the 
Beautiful) ior foriy-sevejiyedirs. Kingdoms rose and fell ; her son ascen- 
ded the throne of the world ; the new world uncovered its wonders : the 
grandest events of history passed, but she heeded not any event. Her 
heart was in that one golden coffin, faithful to a heart that had never 
been faithful to her. Her life fed on the dream of how happy she 
might have been had this man only loved her. In this dream of what 
might have been she died, withered and old. 

" There are some events in the life of Tuana that are amone the 
most curious in history. In her watch by the dead for nearly fifty 
years, she was in matters of state a queen, and her name appeared on 
all great state papers. 

"Again, the Spanish people so loved her as the daughter of 
Isabella, and as one who had been cruelly wronged in her affections, 
that they reverenced her both as a woman and queen, although she 
seems to have taken little notice of this touching loyalty, and was 
apparently indifferent to it. She .seemed to care only to be known 
as one whose heart died with her great love, and was buried in the 
shadows of her sorrow. 

" And again, — what a subject for a poem or for the painter's art ! 
— it was at the time of her death, that Charles V., her son, the great 
and terrible Emperor, resolved to resign the thrones of the world for 
a cloister. The two in reality went out of history at nearly the same 
time, both of them weary of the world and all of its affairs." 



48 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



" This is one of the strangest stories I have ever heard," said 
Arthur. " Did Charles V. sympathize with his mother? " 

" She was as if dead to him. He feared her malady, and he used to 
pray that he might never lose his reason. His last days were full of 
the bigotry of a misled conscience, of sincere piety, and of most pic- 
turesque and dramatic incidents. You may read it all in Robertson's 




ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. 



Charles V. There are few things more unfortunate in religion than a 
morbid mind ; and the church has had to suffer for the mental clouds 
of these royal people in such a way as almost to dim the glory of 
Isabella." 

" I am glad that Columbus remembered Juana in the days of 
triumph," said Arthur. 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 49 

"I always thought his tribute to Juana was one of the beautiful 
incidents of life," said Mrs. Green. 

" In the royal tombs of Granada," she continued, " sleep Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, and beside them the bodies of Philippe le Bel and 
poor Juana, his unhappy wife; all beyond the reach of glory or 
passion or sorrow. I would like to visit these tombs." 

"We shall visit the tomb of Columbus at Havana.? " said Arthur. 

" Yes ; we hope to do so." 

" I shall think of Juana there. Will you not } " 

"Yes, my dear Arthur." 

The story of Juana, or Joanna, greatly interested Arthur in the 
studies of the club. One evening when the romances of Inez de 
Castro and Bernardo del Carpio had been related in the class, Mr. 
Green, the teacher, said : " The great Spanish romance, which is likely 
to become the representative legend of America, is the vision of 
Ponce de Leon." He added : " All nations have some great legend 
which represents the spirit of their history. In Germany it is the 
Rheingold, which Wagner has made eternal by his heroic music ; in 
England it is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, or 
the search for the Holy Grail. It was so with Greece in the tale 
of the Argonauts, and with Rome in the voyages of ^^neas. The story 
of Joseph is the spiritual prophecy of the Jews, and that of Buddha and 
the Bo-tree, of the Hindus. 

" The legend of Ponce de Leon represents the struggle of the 
soul for larger knowledge and higher attainment, of the dreams of 
the z^*?^/ finding the real. That is America. It is the most beautiful 
allegory of America's life and mission. 

"Already the legend is beginning Xo take form. It has been put 
into solid art in the palace hotel at St. Augustine. Poetry and music 
will follow in its development as in the legends of old." 

4 



50 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" I hope that we may visit Porto Rico," said Miss Green. " That 
was the scene of Ponce de Leon's visions, was it not ? " 

" Yes," said Mr. Diaz ; " and there are many romantic incidents 
associated with the legend that are not well known. I will try to 
relate them at some future meeting of the club. If possible we must 
visit Porto Rico, the most beautiful of the Antilles, a part of our 
journey." 

Mr. Diaz had interested the class. At a meeting held a few 
weeks after this introduction of the legend, he related the following 
story : — 

AMERICA'S GREAT LEGEND; OR, THE ROMANCE OF PONCE 

DE LEON. 

Ponce de Leon ^ was a page in the Court of Spain, in the days 
of the rise of Ferdinand and Isabella. Among the wonder tales of 
his youth were the wars of Granada, and later the expulsion of the 
Moors. The boy page had an active imagination ; it is said that he 
was an attendant of a prince, and afterward a secretary or page of an 
officer of rank and influence. He was in hearing of all the exciting 
news of the times as he grew to manhood : he became a soldier, and 
won fame in the Conquest of Granada ; and the triumphs of Colum- 
bus filled his soul with a desire to visit the lands beyond the sea. 

In the year 1493 he set sail with Columbus from the port of Cadiz 
for the Western World. The fleet consisted of seventeen ships and 
fifteen hundred men. The expedition is known as the second voyage 
of Columbus. It was on this voyage that Columbus discovered 
Jamaica and the Caribbean Islands, and that the wliilom page first 
saw those green paradises of the inirple seas to which he was destined 
to return as governor, and thence to be led by his poetic and pro- 
phetic dreams to find tlie solid land of the continent of America. 

' Pronounced Pon'tha da Lay-on'. 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 5 1 

Ponce de Leon, although he was a poet, was a brave and valorous 
man, and excelled in the arts of war as well as of peace. The world 
has had some imaginative warriors ; he was one, and what he saw in 
his dreams he executed in his active life. He saw the palmy islands 
about Hispaniola, and obtained permission from Governor Ovando to 
lead an expedition to them in search of gold. 

He sailed away with Spaniards, Indians, and interpreters, his hori- 
zon full of golden visions. Nor \vas he disappointed. The cacique 
of one of the islands led him to a river whose crystal waters ran over 
stones and pebbles that were veined with gold, and Ponce returned to 
Hispaniola a happy man. 

Happy } But what would be the use of rivers paved with gold, if 
death were close at hand ? Here were islands like paradises ; the air 
seemed celestial ; birds sang all the day, and llowers carpeted the 
earth. Here the soil supported the inhabitants ; bread grew on the 
trees, and fountains sang in the shadows. Here people lived to love 
each other. They had an eternal father in the sun which provided 
them with all things. Why should they die here? 

In 1509 Ponce de Leon was appointed Governor of Porto Rico, 
the land of the golden rivers ; and but for the shadow of the thought 
of death, his happiness would have been complete. An earthly para- 
dise, honors, gold, and everything but a promise of continued exist- 
ence ! He subdued the Indians, and began to rule right royally. 

The Indians at first thought that the Spaniards were as immortal 
as they desired to be. But after a time they began to doubt the fair 
gods' immortality. One of them resolved to test his doubt by drop- 
ping a Spaniard whom he was carrying over a river into the water, 
and allowing him to drown. He put his plan into execution ; and the 
body of the drowned Spaniard did not re\ive, although the Indian 
watched it for three days. 

" Mortal like us," said the Indians. Then the caciques combined 
and waged war against the Spaniards, and the golden realm of Ponce 



^2 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

de Leon was as unquiet as other places of the earth where human 
passions rule and the law of equal right is disregarded. 

The Indians burned his villages, and drove him into a fortress, 
and held him a virtual prisoner. He was however reinforced from 
Hispaniola, when the Indians thought that the Spaniards whom they 
had killed had come to life again, and the belief in the immortality of 
the people " from the skies " was revived. 

In the midst of his troubles and altered fortunes, Ponce de Leon 
was relieved of his position as Governor, or Adelantado, by the king. 

He was now greatly depressed. In this state of mind he one day 
met some venerable Indians whom he regarded as prophetic mes- 
sengers. He questioned about other islands of gold. 

They pointed to the north. 

" The land abounds with gold } " 

" The rivers are gold." 

" What else is there } " 

" Everything that the sun can give." They added : " The people 
there live forever." 

♦'How.?" 

" They drink of a river, and the water is life." 

Here indeed was the land of all his dreams. He was yet rich, 
and he would fit out a new expedition, and would set his white 
sails towards the north. 

It is said that the Cavalier, although not old, had begun to lose 
his early beauty. It is also said that he had met a lovely Italian girl, 
for whose sake he wished that he might become young again. 

He further questioned the prophetic Indians. They told him that 
there was an island, named Bimini, lying far out in the sea, which 
also had a wonderful fountain, and that those who drank of this foun- 
tain became young again, and remained so forever. 

This was all that he could desire. The withering stalk of life 
would bloom again. His spring of years Vould be brought back. 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 53 

He could love again, wed again, and never find his mind clouded 
again with any fear of disease or death. 

And so the happy mariner sailed away, but returned to Porto 
Rico with more wrinkles and gray hair than before. He had seen 
Florida, and searched in vain for the fountain. But the dream still 
haunted him. He repaired to Spain, and was made Governor of Florida, 
Bimini, and the realms of his imagination when he should find them. 

He found them, — beautiful Florida again in this world, and a 
poisoned arrow there which ended his search, after a brief fever, and 
gave him immortality in a better world than this. 

Nor will his name die here. The world will never forsfet that 
beautiful Palm Sunday when he landed in Florida, and praised God 
under the blooming trees, near the present poetic town of St. 
Augustine. 

America has only one city that is a poem, and that is an eternal 
monument to the poetic soul of the old Cavalier. 

There is a legend that associates Silver Springs, Florida, with the 
search of Ponce de Leon. A more thrillinor leo^end connects the 
Waukulla Spring, near the old Magnolia River, with the experiments 
of the fanciful explorers. 

The popular legend of the trial of the rejuvenating waters is so 
poetic and tragic that I have endeavored to express it in verse. 

THE LEGEND OF WAUKULLA. 

Through darkening pines the cavaliers marched on their sunset way, 
While crimson in tiie trade-winds rolled far Appalachce Bay, 
Above the water-levels rose palmetto crowns like ghosts 
Of kings primeval; them behind, the shadowy pines in hosts. 
•• O cacique, brave and trusty guide, 
Are we not near the spring. 
The fountain of eternal youth, that health to age doth bring ?' 
The cacique sighed. 
And Indian guide, 
" The fount is fair, 

Waukulld ! 
On the old Magnolia River." 



54 ZIGZAG JOURXEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" But vainly to the blossomed flower will come the autumn rain, 
And never youth's departed days come back to age again ; 
The future in the spirit lies, and earthly life is brief, 
'Tisj<??< that say the fount hath life," so said the Indian chief. 
" Nay, Indian king; nay, Indian king, 
Thou knowest well the spring. 
And thou shalt die if thou dost fail our feet to it to bring." 
The cacique siglued, 
And Indian guide, 
" The spring is bright, 
Waukulla ! 
On the old Magnolia River." 

Then said the guide : '• O men of Spain, a wondrous fountain flows 
From deep abodes of gods below, and health on men bestows. 
Blue are its deeps and green its walls, and from its waters gleam 
The water-stars, and from it runs the pure WaukuUa's stream. 
But, men of Spain, but, men of Spain. 
'T \% yoii who say that spring 
Eternal youth and happiness to men again will bring." 
The cacique sighed, 
And Indian guide, 
"The fount is clear, 

Waukulla ! 
On the old Magnolia River." 



" March on, the land enchanted is ; march on, ye men of Spain ; 
Who would not taste the bliss of youth and all its hopes again. 
Enchanted is the land ; behold ! enchanted is the air ; 
The very heaven is domed with gold ; there 's beauty everywhere ! " 
So said De Leon. " Cavaliers, 
We 're marching to the spring. 
The fountain of eternal youth, that health to age will bring! " 
The cacique sighed. 
And Indian guide, 
" The fount is pure, 

Waukulla ! 
By the old Magnolia River." 

Beneath the pines, beneath the yews, the deep magnolia shades, 
The clear Waukulla swift pursues its way through lloral glades ; 
Beneath the pines, beneath the yews, beneath night's falling shade, 
Beneath the low and dusky moon still marched the cavalcade. 

'• The river widens," said the men ; 

'■ Are we not near the spring, 



THE EVER FAITHEUL ISLE. 

The fountain of eternal youth tliat liealth to age doth bring ? " 
The cacique siglied, 
And Indian guide, 
" The spring is near, 

Waukulia ! 
On tlie old Magnolia River." 

"The fount is fair and bright and clear, and pure its waters run ; 
Waukulia, lovely in the moon and beauteous in the sun. 
But vainly to the blossomed flower will come the autumn rain, 
And never youth's departed days come back to man again. 
O men of Spain ! O men of Spain ! 
"Tis you that say the spring 
Eternal youth and happiness to withered years will bring! " 
The cacique sighed, 
And Indian guide, 
"The fount is deep, 

Waukulia ! 
On the old Magnolia River." 

The river to a grotto led, as to a god's abode ; 

There lay the fountain bright with stars ; stars in its waters flowed: 
The mighty live-oaks round it rose, in ancient mosses clad. 
De Leon's heart beat high for joy ; the cavaliers were glad, 
" O men of Spain ! O men of Spain ! 
This surely is the spring. 
The fountain fair that health and joy to faces old doth bring ! " 
The cacique sighed. 
And Indian guide, 
" The spring is old, 

Waukulia ! 
On the old Magnolia River." 

" Avalia, O my trusty friend, that we this day should see ! 
Strip off thy doublet and descend the glowing fount with me ! " 
"The saints ! I will," Avalia said. "Already young I feel. 
And younger than my sons shall I return to old Castile." 
Then plunged De Leon in the spring. 
And then Avalia old ; 
Then slowly rose each wrinkled face above the waters cold. 
The cacique sighed, 
And Indian guide, 
"The fount is yours, 

Waukulia ! 
By the old Magnolia River" 



55 



55 ZIGZAG JOUR.XEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Oh, viinly to the blossomed flower will come the autumn rain, 
And never youth's departed days come back to man as^ain ; 
The crowns Castilian could not bring the withered stalk a leaf ; 
But came a sabre flash that morn, and fell the Indian chief. 
Another sabre flash, and then 
The guide beside him lay. 
And red the clear Magnolia ran toward Appalachee Bay. 
Then from the dead 
The Spaniards fled. 
And cursed the spring, 
Waukulla, 
And the old Magnolia River. 

" Like comrades life was left behind, the years shall o'er me roll, 
For all the hope that man can find lies hidden in the soul. 
Ye white sails lift, and drift again across the southern main ; 
There wait for me, there wait us all, the hollow tombs of Spain ! " 
Beneath the liquid stars the sails 
Arose and went their way, 
And bore the gray-haired cavaliers from Appalachee Bay. 
The young chiefs slept. 
And maidens wept. 
Beside the bright 

Waukulla, 
On the old .Magnolia River ! 



This is tradition and fancy. Let us return to some interesting- 
facts associated with this beautiful story. 

Puerto Rico, or Porto Rico, is the tomb of Ponce de Leon. The 
port of Ponce still bears the name of the romantic cavalier. 

His tomb bears an heroic inscription: — 

" Here rest the bones of a man who was a Leon by name, and still more by nature." 

" Mole sub hac fortis requiescat ossa Leon 
Qui vicit factis nomina magna suis." 

Ponce de Leon was a rehVious man after the crude teachinos of 
the times in which he lived. 

In February, 1521, he thus wrote to Charles V., the son of 

Juana, who was then in the beginning of his reign : — 



THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE. 



57 



" I discovered at my own cost and charge the Island of Florida ; and now I 
return to that island, if it please God's will, to settle it, that the name of Christ 
may be praised there." 

The language is a picture of the heart of the man. Like Colum- 
bus, he regarded himself as under divine direction. There was much 
of the prophet as well as the poet in his soul. 

The date of his birth is uncertain. It has been placed at 1560. 
He is said to have been employed as a page to the infant Ferdinand, 
who was born in 1552. If this be true, and if he was brought up in the 
Court of Aragon, his boyhood must have been as poetic as his old age. 
He is spoken of as being old when he went in search of the Fountain 
of Youth. This is usually done to meet the poetic requirements of 
the great legend. He was really in the prime of life at the time. 
He died at about the age of sixty, in the early afternoon of manhood. 

If his boyhood was passed in the Court of Ferdinand V., the 
famous Ferdinand of the years of the Conquest of Granada and the 
Great Discovery, who in marriage wedded his kingdom to Castile 
and shared the 'glory of Isabella, he must have been schooled in the 
high art of the times, and in the romances of the minstrels and trouba- 
dours. The cities of Spain, and especially those of Cordova, Granada, 
and Barcelona, were devoted to literature, art, and music. Prescott 
describes the Floral Academy which was endowed by the Kings of 
Nugon, and which was situated at Barcelona. It was a school of 
poetry and music. 

"■ The topics of discussion," says Prescott, " were the praises of the 
Virgin, love, arms, and other good usages. The performances of the 
candidates were inscribed on parchments of various colors, richly 
enamelled with silver and gold, and beautifully illuminated. The 
poems were publicly recited by the poets, and then referred to a com- 
mittee, who took a solemn oath to decide upon their merits after the 
rules of art. On the delivery of their verdict, a wreath of gold was 
placed upon the victorious poem, and the troubadour was escorted to 



58 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

the royal palace amid a cortege of minstrelsy and chivalry ; thus, 
according to an old chronicler, " manifesting to the world the supe- 
riority which God and Nature have assigned to genius." 

Such is a glowing picture of literature and art in Aragon in the 
young days of Ferdinand, and his boy page, Ponce de Leon. 



CHAPTER V. 



ARTHUR. 



mm 


M 





HE Greens lived in one of the beautiful villages in 
the Berkshire Hills, famous for character and intelli- 
gence. Amono- the neiQ:hborino- towns was Pitts- 
field, of literary reputation, and Lenox, the autumn 
Newport, famous for its scenic beauty at the time of 
the falling leaves. Greylock is the dome of the 
hills in this charming region which has produced noble men and 
women for many generations. 

Mr. Green was a graduate of Williams College, and a man of liter- 
arv tastes, and was connected with a prosperous publishing-house in 
Boston. Mrs. Green was a woman of culture and quiet, refined tastes, 
and had a keen sense of humor. She was a good story-teller, for her 
humor enabled her to present insincerity in its true light, and her high 
nioral sense to make what is good and true appear in its rightful color- 
ing. Mr. and Mrs. Green had taken great pains in the mental train- 
ing of their son, and had selected his reading with care. 

" The young mind feeds on what it reads," Mr. Green used to say, 
"and forms its character by it. Tell me what a boy likes most to read 
and I will give you his true character and forecast his future. And," 
he used to add with emphasis, " there is nothing that so forms youth- 
ful character as short stories." 

Mr. Green saw the influence of short-story reading as a means of 
mental and moral education, and used to speak of it often among his 
friends. 



6o ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

He was a member of the School Board, and used to read papers on 
literary topics before the High School ; and one of these gave his 
views on the short story as a means of unconscious education. As 
the short stories of Mr. and Mrs. Green will form a large part of this 
volume, we give Mr. Green's views as presented in this paper : — 

SHORT STORIES AND SHORT-STORY WRITING. 

The short story is the leading literary event of the day ; the parable and 
popular feature of the times. The most acceptable short story is that which in 
some way interprets the times. This kind of story is criticised as an evidence 
of literary degeneracy, but wherein does it differ from the best and most lasting 
models of the past? The stories of Joseph and Ruth and of the Talmud will 
forever interpret the spirit of the Hebrew race; the "Arabian Nights" stand 
for the vanished thrones and courts of the Orient ; the stories of the Golden 
Fleece, of Plutarch's heroes, and of the death of Socrates are a spiritual map of 
Greece; the " Rheingold " interprets Germany in her long struggles of the 
New against the Old ; and the spiritual history of England from Chaucer to 
Dickens may be best read in short stories and ballads — which are short stories 
in rhyme — which s\'mpathetic interpretation has made immortal. Short 
stories are not only the interpreters of history and the soul, but of the spirit of 
the ages in all their seasons. And is it to be regretted that American writing 
should have taken this form, amid the progress and activities of the times, when 
the sun of our histor}' is leaving the horizon? 

Before the Christian era, Horace in his " De Arte Poetica " thus gave the 
secret of the most popular and enduring methods of writing: "He that hath 
blent the useful with the agreeable hath carried every vote. His book crosses 
the sea: it will enrich the Socii, and win for him imperishable fame." It is 
the story that makes what is useful agreeable that best meets the wants of life, 
" He is a genius," said. Emerson, " who gives me back my own thoughts." He 
who can well say what others think becomes a voice of the times, and a brother 
to all men. The Great Teacher of life himself made use of these methods. 
The Gospel of Luke is a book of short stories. The story of the Holy Grail 
will forever interpret the knighthood of England, and that of Ponce dc Leon 
tlic spirit of the American student. 

America has as yet produced not many short stories" that promise to live. 
()f those that seem likely to become representative, the best are in verse. I 



ARTHUR. 6 1 

was recently asked by a student what I thought to be the most beautiful short 
story ever written. I replied, "That of Joseph in the Hebrew Scriptures." I 
was asked again what I regarded as the best short story in American literature. 
I answered, "Evangeline; " but received the correction, the "Legend of Sir 
Launfal." I have heard Baron Fouque's " Undine " named a? the most beauti- 
ful of all short stories of the creative imagination. It might be a good exercise 
for literary societies to debate and analyze these questions, and the answers that 
they would be likely to receive: What is the most beautiful story in all the 
world? What is the best in American books? 

Among the representative short stories in our literature before the present 
time of interpretative story-writing we may cite Irving's " Rip Van Winkle," 
Poe's " Gold Bug," Hawthorne's " Province House Stories," Harriet Prescott 
Spofford's " Amber Gods," Fitz-James O'Brien's " Diamond Lens," Edward 
Everett Hale's " Man without a Country," and Bret Harte's " Luck of Roaring 
Camp." 

All writers should be familiar with these models, but they seem to have 
been but early stars in our Western sky. Within a few years short-story 
writers have appeared in nearh' every section of our country as the interpre- 
ters of the genius of the places where they lived or of the spirit and progress of 
the times. Ten years ago a book of short stories could hardly find a publisher; 
now it is the current reading. 

The popular short story takes three leading forms, — that which seeks to 
interpret the times, which is in some wa\' a parable ; the folk-lore picture ; and 
psychological analysis. Of these the form that deals with the spirit and ten- 
dencies of current ex'ents seems to be the principal in interest, though the most 
short-lived of all. 

The revival of interest in \-illage stories, old neighborhood events, home 
tales, and the dialect and methods of the old natural story-tellers must be 
regarded as one of the instructive methods of the times. These stories, which 
follow the models of Sir Walter Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather" and Haw- 
thorne's " Grandfather's Chair,' are becoming the conserx'ators of the incidental 
part of our history. Incidents are the soul-expression of events. Grimm's 
" Fairx' Tales" are the household history of Germany. The soul of a town 
lives in its popular story. The time has come to collect the best stories of our 
own land, and to give them permanent form, as. has been done in part by Mr. 
Harris, Mr. Cable, Bret Harte, and Miss Wilkins. Every State in the Union 
may hav^e its Hans Christian Andersen. Tales of colonial houses and farms, and 
of Southern plantations; strange Indian fancies; old French legends of the ren- 
contres ; pioneer cabin lore; yarns of ships and sailors; and the humorous and 



62 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

remarkable events of neighborhoods and villages, — all this varied material may 
now well begin to engage the pen, and will be likely to prove historically instruc- 
tive. Our history is mellowing for such work, for the charm of such stories is 
the gay in gray garments of the past. 

The psychological story, as a rule, is the highest form of art, and, like 
" Rasselas," "Undine," and " Rip Van Winkle," is likely to prove the most 
enduring. There are fewer stories of this kind than of the others which are 
now being produced. This may indicate a material tendency of the age. In 
the Hebrew Talmud nearly all of the short stories relate to spiritual events, for 
such thoughts filled the minds of the people. The genius of the nation was 
spiritual, as that of Germany is metaphysical. But such writers of short stories 
as Mrs. Phelps-Ward still hold the interest of the best minds, and easily lead 
all others in dealing in jewels and interpreting what is best in life. 

Will the old emotional love-story in the form of the three volumes ever 
come back again? I hope not. The most enduring parables of life are short, 
and these models of the past are the best for all time. Read Horace's " De 
Arte Poetica " for the first principles of literary art, in all of its forms. The 
old Apulian poet, after giving to the world that brief poem of direction, left 
but little for any one to say. " He that hath blent the useful with the agree- 
able hath carried every vote." The most agreeable form of literary teaching in 
our times and country has become the short story, and we see no reason to 
criticise it, to disparage its mission, or to regret its advent. We would rather 
welcome it as the good genius of our hearts, hearths, and homes. 

There was a Village Improvement Society in the town, and this 
had once engaged the activities of our young people of the Spanish 
Class. The society gave entertainments, beautified old historic 
places, set out trees in public ways, made a flower-garden of the 
public-school yard, purchased pictures for the town hall, and caused 
portraits of worthy citizens to be placed there. The work was 
patriotic and educational, and the Spanish Class grew out of this 
progressive training. The members of the class were still members 
of the Improvement Society. 

One of the purposes of the society was the collection of Village 
Folk Lore. IVlrs. Cireen had been a very useful member in this 
department of literary work. I^vcry village has traditions and 



ARTHUR. 63 

Stories that pass on from one generation to another because of 
their wit or worth. They are much like Grimm s " Household Tales 
of Germany." The society collected these tales from the old story- 
tellers. Mrs. Green supplied a number of such stories, chiefly 
traditions of the Battle of Bennington, of Elder John Leland, and 
the marvellous stories of the Great Cheshire Cheese. 

There was one story which Mr. Green used to relate that he 
was often asked to repeat. It had some very curious points and 
picturings. As an illustration of the stories of this tradition-loving 
family, we will give this story here : — 

THE GHOST OF GREYLOCK. 

It was a clear evening late in December, I recall it well, though I was a 
boy then. A gold star was skining in the fading crimson over the old New 
England town near Greylock hke a lamp in a chapel window. The woodland 
pastures were purple with gentians, red with cranberries, and yellow with frost- 
smitten ferns. The still air echoed from the russet hills the call of the chore- 
boy. The wains were rumbling home on the leafless country-roads. Stacks 
of corn-husks were rising here and there, after late hours' husking; and now 
and then a supper-horn was blown from the door of some red farmhouses 
among the orchards, far and near. 

Over the country-road, between the sunset and moonrise, John Ladd, a 
farmer boy, was driving home a team of pumpkins and shocks of stalks. 
These stalks were cut late in summer, and gathered into small bundles. The 
bundles were themselves gathered into shocks, and these shocks were so tied 
as to form a compact body about five or six feet high. A shock of stalks in 
the evening resembled the form of a woman, or the old-fashioned costume of 
a lady in short waist and large hoops. 

In bringing home the pumpkins from the fields of corn in which they 
commonly grew, it was a custom to load a few shocks of stalks upon them, 
and to cover the pumpkins with them in the barn cellar, or on the barn floor, 
as a protection from the cold. 

Johnny Ladd had learned a new tune, a very popular one at that tiiiic. and 
he was one of those persons who are haunted by the musical car. Everybody 
was singing this new tune. The tune was called, " There's a sound going forth 



64 ZIGZAG JOURXEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

from the mulberry-trees," and the v/ords were very mysterious and sublime, 
being taken, in part, from the inspirations of the old Hebrew poets. 
Johnny made the old woods ring with the new tune, — 

" What joyful sound is this I hear, 
Fresh from the mulberry tops ! " 

A new tune turns the head of an impressionist, especially when associated 
with such grand, poetic images as these; and while Johnny's voice was being 
echoed by old Greylock, the bo)' lost his sense of sublunary things, and one of 
the bundles of stalks tumbled off of the load and landed in the middle of the 
road without his notice, and stood there upright, looking like the form of a 
woman at a little distance away in the dark. In slipping from the load the 
shock had bent a few sheaves upward on one side ; so it presented the appear- 
ance of a woman with her arm raised as a gesture of warning. 

The cart rumbled on with its singing young driver, leaving this ominous 
figure in the middle of the road at the very top of the hill. 

Many of the old towns used to have a poor, homeless dog, — " nobody's 
dog," or dog vagrant, — a cur that farm-hands "shooed," bo}'s stoned, women 
avoided, and no one owned or cared to own. Cheshire had such a dog ; he 
used to steal bones from back-yards, and sleep under haystacks and shocks 
of stalks, and run out of these with his tail curled under him when he heard 
any one approaching. This dog came trotting along the road, soon after the 
shock of stalks had been left behind, and thinking that the shock would be 
a good cover for the night, crawled into it. curled up, and probably went to 
sleep. 

The shock was left on smooth, shelving ground, and could slip about easily ; 
and whenever the dog moved tlie shock moved, waving its spectral hand in a 
very mysterious manner. 

Now just be\'ond this animated effigy on the top of the hill, was a gra\-e- 
}'ard, and in it a year before had been buried an old woman who had been 
found dead sitting in her chair. Her grave had been visited by a local poet, 
who had written for her gravestone the following biographical epitaph : — 

'■As I was sitting in my chair, 
Busy about my worldly care, 
In one brief moment I fell dead, 
And to this place I was conveyed." 

Such was the animated corn-shock, and the peculiar condition of affairs 
on tiie top of the hill, when a part}' of philosophical jokers met to pass the 
e\-cnin''' in the bi'^ travellers' room of the " Half-Wa\- Inn." 



ARTHUR. 



65 



This inn was kept by Freelove Mason, a buxom hostess whose name was 
familiar to every traveller between Boston and Albany in the pastoral days of 
the old New England stage-coach. She was a famous cook, like Julicn, of the 
good-living Boston inn, whose name still lives in soups, and often heads the 
appetizing list on menus. 

The gray-coated old stage-drivers used to toot their horns on approaching 
the elm-shaded valley of Cheshire, as a signal to Freelove to have the after- 
noon dinner hot on the table when the coach should stop under the swinging 
sign between the steeple-like trees. 

What stages they were, with their heavy wheels and flexible leather gearing! 
They were painted green and yellow, with sign letters in red, and the State of 
Massachusetts coat-of-arms or other seal on the door. The middle seat was 
supplied with a broad leather band for a back, which was unhooked while the 
passengers of the back seat found their places. The driver's seat was high and 
grand, with a black leather boot under which were placed the mail-bags, and 
a dog that had been well educated in the school of growls, and that was sure 
to check any impertinent curiosity in the conscientious exercise of his office. 
A tall whip cut the air above the seat, protruding out of a round pocket near 
the one high step. A tally-ho horn found a place between the driver's legs ; 
and when it was lifted into the air, its blast caused the dogs to drop their tails, 
and the hares to prick up their ears, and the partridges to whir away, and the 
farm hands to take breath amid their work. 

It was ail important hour in Cheshire when the grand Boston coach dashed 
up between the two great Lombardy poplars, and stopped at the horse-block 
in front of the Half-Way Inn. Dogs barked, children ran, and women's faces 
filled the windows among the morning-glory vines. At the open door stood 
Freelove always, on these occasions, her face beaming, her cap border bobbing, 
and her heart overflowing, and seeming to meet in every guest a long-lost sister 
or brother. She knew how to run a hotel ; and nothing but prosperity attended 
her long and memorable administration. 

On this notable evening of which I speak, the principal characters were 
Judge Smart, Billy Brown — or " Sweet Billy," as he was called, an odd genius, 
who was the " Sam Lawson " of the Berkshire Hills — Camcralsman, the stage- 
driver, and Blingo, the blacksmith. I can see the very group now, as when a 
boy. They were joined by Freelove herself, early in the evem'ng, who brought 
her knitting, and was eager to discuss the latest marvel of the newspapcrlcss 
times, and to add the wisdom of her moral reflections upon it. She prefaced 
the remarks which she wished to make emphatically — and they were frc((uent 
— with the word " Lordy," almost profane in its suggestions, but not ill-inten- 

5 



66 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

tioned by her. It was a common exclamation of surprise in the old county 
towns. 

The short, red twilight had been followed by light gusts of night winds, 
whirling leaves, passing like an unseen traveller, leaving silence behind. 
Shutters creaked, and clouds flew hurriedly along the sky over the sparkling 
courses of the stars. 

The conversation of the evening turned on the old topic, — Were there ever 
haunted places? Judge Smart and Blingo, the blacksmith, were of the opinion 
that there were no trustworthy evidences of supernatural manifestations to 
human eyes and ears, and it required great moral courage at this time to call 
in question the traditional philosophy of the old Colony teachers and wonder 
tales. 

" There is no evidence whatever that there ever was a haunted place in this 
country or anywhere else, and I do not believe that any one ever knew such a 
place except in his imagination, not even Cotton Mather himself, or that any 
one ever will. 

" ' With those who think that there are witches, 
There the witches are ; 
With those who think there are no witches, 
Witches are not there.'" 

So said Blingo, the blacksmith. 

Freelove started, but only said, " Lordy ! " in a deep contralto voice. Was 
it possible that such heresy as this had been uttered in the great room of her 
tavern? A tavern without a haunted room or some like mystery would be just 
a tavern ; no more to be respected than an ordinary ! She let down her knit- 
ting-work into her lap in a very deliberate way, and sat silent. Then she said 
most vigorously to Blingo, the blacksmith, — 

"So you have become of the opinion of the Judge and the stage-driver? 
Look here, Blingo, I should think that you would be afraid to doubt such 
things. I should. I should be afraid that something awful would follow me, 
and whoop down vengeance on me, like an old-fashioned hurricane, — I should. 
Mercy me, hear the wind howl ! There it comes again. Lordy ! " 

The great sign creaked, and a loose shutter rattled, and a shutter banged. 

" Blingo, you may be an honest-meaning man, but don't you invite evil upon 
this house. I — " 

" My good woman, don't you worry. I just want to ask you one question : 
If ghosts cry and shriek, as you say they do, they can also talk, can't they, 
now? Say?" 



ARTHUR. 67 

" I suppose so." 

"Well, why don't they do it then, and tell what they want, honest-like? 
There, now ! " 

There came another rush of wind and leaves, and many rattling noises. 
Freelove seemed to have an impression that she was called on to vindicate 
the invisible world in some way so as to sustain the most friendly relations 
to it. 

Sweet Billy Brown, the Cheshire joker, came to her assistance in a very 
startling and unexpected manner, after one or two more ominous bangs of a 
shutter. How odd he looked ; his face .red with the fire, and his eyes full of 
roguery ! 

" Freelove," said he, with lifted eyebrows and wide mouth, — " Freelove, 
these are solemn times for poor, unthinking mortals to make such declara- 
tions as these. Winds are blowin', and winders are rattlin', and shutters are 
bangin', and what not. Hist ! Just you listen now." 

He gave me a curious wink, as much as to say, " Now watch for a rare 
joke." 

" Did you know that old woman, she what died last year, come November, 
come the 12th, sitting in her chair, bolt upright — so?" Billy straightened up 
like a statue. " Did you know what she answered? She answered some boys 
what was a-whortelberryin' in her graveyard ! " 

" Answered? " said Freelove, with a bob of her cap-border. "Answered? 
Lordy ! Did you say answered? " 

"Mercy me! Yes, answered. 'Twas all mighty curious and mysterious 
like. Them boys they just hollered right out there, up in that old, briery, 
burying graveyard on the windy hill, ' Old woman, old woman, what did you 
die of? ' And the old woman answered — nothin' at all." 

Billy gave me another peculiar look. 

"Lordy! Did she? I always knew it was so. Nothing ailed her; she 
had just got through." 

" But I have n't ; that is n't all. I have somethin' more to tell, — somethin' 
to make your hair stand on end, as Shakspeare says." 

Freelove felt of her wig. 

" One night in October," continued Sweet Billy, " a certain young man 
that I might name was passing that place with his girl, and he told the girl, as 
they were passing, what answer the old woman had made to the whortelberryin' 
boys in her graveyard. And she says, says she, * I dast to ask that question; ' 
and she went up to the wall, she did, and says she, says she, mighty pert and 



did, am 
lan, old 



chipper-like, says she, ' Old woman, old woman, what did you die of? ' and 



68 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

just as true as I am sittin' here, and the wind is blowin', and the shutters are 
bangin', the old woman answered, just as she did before — nothin' at all ! " 

Freelove's cap gave another bob, and she said, " L-o-r-d-y ! " when Sweet 
Billy continued: — 

" And I, — yes, I ventured to ask her the same question one night when I 
was passin', and I, true as preachin', got the same answer myself, — nothin" 
at all. You may believe it or not, — there, now." 

Freelove sat like a pictured woman in a pictured chair. 

" I have always heard that that old graveyard was haunted," said she at 
last. " Now let us be perfectly honest and sincere with each other. You 
three men say that there is no such thing as the appearance of spirits to living 
people. That is so. If you. Judge Smart, and you, Cameralsman, and you,. 
Blingo, will go to-night up to the top of that hill and say those identical words, 
I will give you all a hot supper when you return. It is in the brick oven now. 
People have seen strange things there for forty years. Here is a test for you. 
There, now! You 've all got ears and eyes. Will you go? " 

" I will," said the Judge. " I would n't think any more of doing a thing 
like that than I would of going to the wood-pile and speaking to the chop- 
ping-block." 

" Nor I," said Cameralsman. 

" Nor I," said Blingo. 

" Well, go," said Freelove ; " but promise me that if you should see any- 
thing all in white, or if the old woman answers you as she did the others, you 
will believe these ghost stories to be true." 

" Yes," said the Judge, the stage-driver, and the blacksmith, all in chorus. 

There was a shout of laughter, and a swinging of arms and putting on of 
overcoats; and the three men banged the door behind them, and turned merrily 
toward the hill road, thinking only of the hot supper they would have on their 
return. A December supper out of an old brick oven in the prosperous days 
of the Cheshire farmers was no common meal. 

I followed them. I thought I saw the double sense of Sweet Billy's words, 
and I was full of wonder at his boldness. The old graveyard had borne a very 
doubtful reputation for nearly a generation, but Billy's joke furnished a new 
horror to the place of dark imaginations. 

It was a bright, gusty December night. The moon was rising like an even- 
ing sun behind the great skeletons of oaks on the high hill. Now and then 
came a gust of wind breaking the chestnut burrs, and dropping down showers 
of chestnuts. The frosts were gathering and glimmering over the pastures. 

Billy Brown was specially happy over his joke, and the play upon words 





i! ^ 



ARTHUR. 



71 



in the old woman's supposed answer. He had told the story in such a realistic 
way and tone that no one had seen the point of it, which is at once obvious in 
print. The Judge had a very strong feeling. of self-sufficiency. 

" I w^ould not engage in this foolishness but for the supper," said he. 
*' ' Three wise men of Gotham went to sea in a bowl ! ' " 

" Nor I," said Cameralsman. " I would hate to be quoted all over the 
town as having made such scatter-brains of myself. The people would all be 
laughing at me, and if there is anything that I can't endure it is to be laughed 
at. There are men who face battles that cannot stand a joke. I have seen 
stormy weather on the old roads, but my legs would fly like drumsticks in a 
cannonade, before the giggle of a girl. People are governed by their imagina- 
tions, and that makes us all a strange lot of critters." 

After these sage remarks we stubbed along the moonlit road, the Judge 
leading. Once he stopped and said, " What fools we all are ! " repeating Puck's 
view of the human species. 

" That's so," said Cameralsman. 

" You '11 feel as full of wisdom as old King Solomon," said Billy, the joker. 
" You will, now, when you hear that answer comin' up from the bowels of the 
earth, without any head or tongue or body, or nothin'." 

The three men laughed. 

A white rabbit ran across the road. We all stopped. White! Was it a 
sign? Our imaginations began to be active, and to create strange pictures 
and resemblances. There followed the white streaks of the rabbit a gust of 
wind, overturning beds of leaves. I was so excited that my forehead was wet 
with perspiration. 

" Cracky ! There 's somethin' strange somewhere. I can feel it in the air," 
said Billy. " My two eyes ! What is that? " 

We all stopped. The moon was rising over the oaks and pines, and on 
the top of the hill stood what looked to us all like the figure of a woman with 
an arm raised, mysterious and silent, as in warning. 

Under ordinary circumstances we would have seen there simply a shock of 
stalks. But our imaginations were excited, and we were in doubt. 

" It 's the old woman herself," said Cameralsman. 

" Come out to meet us," said the Judge, sarcastically. 

"Cracky, if I don't' believe it is," said Billy, with bending form and staring 
eyes. 

"Judge?" 

" What, Billy?" 

" That was a joke." 



y2 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

"What?" 

" Wot I said about the old woman, and that she would answer nothin' at 
all. But the graveyard is haunted. I've heard so a hundred times." 

" Well, that figure is no joke, as you can see. But it is up there that we 
shall have to go, and you too, Billy." 

" Oh, Judge, not now that I told you it was all a joke." 

" But you must, Billy." 

"Why?" 

" Do you want to be laughed at as a coward? " 

There was a movement of the figure. 

" Oh, Judge, look ! I can see her hand move. Oh, heavings and earth ! let 
us try a race back to the tavern." 

" No, no ; we must investigate. We 'd lose our reputations if we did not. 
A man must stand by his reputation whatever may come." 

" Judge, these are solemn times. Anybody is welcome to my reputation ; 
I 'd part with it now if I only could get back to the tavern again," said Billy. 

The Judge pressed on. The rest followed unwillingly; Billy lagging behind 
the others, but led on by force of example. 

Our imaginations now made of the object a perfect old woman, with a 
waving arm. 

" Judge," said Billy again. 

" Come on, you coward ! " 

" She is warning us to turn back," said Billy. " Don't you see? Back it is. 
Just look at the moon, Judge. Have n't you any respect for the moon, nor for 
warnin's, nor for me, nor for nothin' ? ' Back,' she says, ' turn back! " 

We were now in full view of the object, our nervous fears growing at every 
step. We all stopped again. 

" Cameralsman," said the Judge, "you have muscle; throw a stone at her." 

Camcralsman picked up a stone and threw it with great force towards the 
mysterious image. 

The effect was surprising. The figure began to bob up and down, and to 
move down the hill, turning round and round, and waving its threatening arm. 
Wc all stepped back ; Billy crying, " The heavings have mercy on mortal 
man ! " All the nervous control we had left vanis'hed. We were now mere 
children of our fancies, victims of our fears. * 

The next event paralyzed us all. I can hear it now. A wild, piercing, 
muffled cry, or shriek, rose from the figure, cutting the air and echoing every- 
where a wild, long, piteous howl. It was repeated twice. Then the figure 
turned round and round again, waving its long arm; then it seemed to bow 



ARTHUR. ^^ 

over, and, as it did so, a white form leaped into the air. A wild gust of wind 
swept over the hill ; the prostrate figure was borne into the gulch by the way- 
side, and the white form was gone as though it had vanished. The road was 
clear. The moon seemed like the head of a giant rising over the hill. We 
were all dumb with fear. Even the Judge spread his legs apart in terror. 

" It is n't in mortal power to stand such a sight as that," said he. " The in- 
visible world is after us. Run ! " 

We all approved his decision. 

Run? We turned at the order, and I never saw nervous energy so applied 
to the limbs of any human beings as it was then. There came another gust of 
wind that carried away the Judge's hat. We did n't stop for it. Billy stumbled 
once and fell headlong, and rose covered with blood. But he only said, 
" Heavings ! " and bounded on again, his legs flying faster than before. In this 
excited condition we returned to the inn, and tumbled one after another into 
the door. Freelove met us there, all excitement, with her usual inconsiderate 
exclamation. The Judge was first to speak after the return. 

" There are some things that make one wish for extraction or annihilation," 
said he ; " and the invisible world has come down from the firmament to tcj-ra 
firmar This judicial announcement I have always thought a model of its kind. 
" The wise men are confounded ; I never really and truly believed in such 
things before." 

" I would n't stay in this neighborhood," said Cameralsman, " for all the 
taverns in America. I never really believed that such things happen ; now I 
know. I am sure!' 

" Heaving forgive me ! " said Blingo, the blacksmith, " I am a humbled man. 
I have all the evidences of my senses. These things are so." 

" Your supper is ready," said Freelove, turning round and round, like a top. 

" Supper? " said the Judge. " I don't feel as though I would ever eat any- 
thing again." 

" If I only knew where there was any safe world to go to, I 'd go there," 
said Billy. " I declare I would. This is about the poorest world that I ever 
got into, ■ — it is, now. Ghosts a-swingin' their arms, an' whirlin' roun', an' 
shriekin', an' callin' up the moon an' winds, an' disappearin' right before your 
eyes into the bowels of the earth. Oh, my ! Why, anybody who would doubt 
what we saw would doubt anything. Heaving forgive me ! This is my last 
joke. I 've got through." 

Freelove flew about, all excitement. We agreed, the Judge and all, that 
here was a supernatural event. How could we have dreamed of a dog in a 
shock of stalks? . 

Here, at last, was a case of real ghost in old GrcyK)ck ! 



CHAPTER VI. 



ARTHUR'S HOME MUSEUM AND ITS RELATION TO THE JOURNEY. 




JN^HE first step is all the way," said Mr. Green to 
Arthur one evening, when he had suggested to 
his son that it was a good plan to have a home 
museum. 

" The subject of home education," said Mr. 
Green, " is likely to receive much attention in 
the future, as an essential outgrowth of the Chautauquan Circles ; 
and I think that the time will come when travel will become a part 
of our educational system. Certain I am that families more and more 
will seek to make a school in the home, with a library for the young, 
with apparatus for scientific experiment, and a museum." 

" A museum ? " said Arthur. " How would you collect a home 
museum ? " 

" A home museum," said Mr. Green, " may be made a playhouse 
of useful study and experiment. Such museums have usually con- 
sisted of minerals, coins, shells, stuffed birds and fishes, fossils, post- 
age-stamps, and autographs. These are all interesting collections, 
and follow the English methods of making a cabinet of curiosities ; 
but in our country an enlargement of the plan may be appropriate, 
with articles peculiar to our soil and history." 

" How would you make the cabinet.? " asked Arthur. 
" The case or cabinet of such a museum may be very simple and 
inexpensive. It may consist merely of shelves and curtains, though 
it would be better to have a case with glass doors, or boxes with glass 




A FLORIDA HERON. 



ARTHUR'S HOME MUSEUM. 77 

covers. A plaster bust of some representative man, a stuffed eagle 
or owl, buffalo horns, or some curious fossil may be used to orna- 
ment the top of the cabinet, if a case instead of boxes be used." 

" And what would you put into a home museum like this } " asked 
Arthur. 

" Indian relics," said Mr. Green. " The passing away of the In- 
dian tribes makes the collection of Indian relics an interesting mat- 
ter of history. These relics are to be found in all parts of our 
country. Arrow-heads and wampum are almost everywhere to be 
found embedded in the soil. Indian axes and flints, and mills where 
corn was ground by being beaten with a pestle or rolled under a 
pestle, are common curiosities; and pottery is exhumed in many places 
in the Southwest. 

" Indian beads and pipes are common to all parts of the country. 

" In order to make interesting such relics as these, they should 
be associated with traditions and local wonder-tales, and their asso- 
ciations explained. Nearly every town in America has its Indian 
stories, and the collection of the romances of primitive life is a most 
poetic and picturesque study. 

" An artist friend of mine visited the old Indian Reservation at 
Lakeville, Massachusetts, painted a portrait of one of the Wampanoag 
tribe, and made sketches of the ancient Indian burying-ground, and 
other scenes of traditions about the lake. He was impelled only by 
the motive to preserve the historical associations of the few descen- 
dants of Massasoit and King Philip. 

" Let me map out a plan : — 

Heirlooms. 

" In the thirteen original States of the Union are many fine oak 
houses, with great chimneys and fireplaces, broad halls with facing 
doors, winding stairs, and cavernous garrets. In these garrets are 
often stored away the old cradles, sticks, clocks, settles, looms, wheels. 



78 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS, ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

fire-dogs, guns, pictures, samplers, warming-pans, and other antique 
articles of former generations. 

" Many families in New England have sold such relics for old 
brass, iron, or rags ; the planters of Virginia and the Carolinas have, 
as a rule, entertained a larger sentiment of respect for such things, 
as have the families of Pennsylvania. 

" It is an easy matter to change a garret, which still contains such 
relics as have been mentioned, into an antiquated museum, and to 
associate many articles with heroic, romantic, amusing, or pathetic 
traditions of the family, — our garret, for example. 

"You have visited the antique rooms of the Colonial house of 
Major Ben : Perley Poore. The Major's rambling chambers and 
attics are full of articles associated with stories, and he learned to 
relate these traditions in a very vivid way. In his home old New 
England lived again, as the days of Washington still live in the upper 
rooms at Mount Vernon. 

Shells. V 

" The collection of shells, by the sea and on the land, is one of 
the simplest ways of training the eye to see beauty in common 
things. When a collection of shells has been made, sea-ferns and 
plants and flowers become wonderfully interesting to the museum- 
maker. 

" The salt-water shells, fresh-water shells, and land shells may be 
so arranged as to present many curious points of comparison ; and 
the beginner may well open his museum with these. The simple 
study will be likely to lead him on into the wide field of fossils and 
zoology. 

Farm Collections. 

" Taxidermy requires training and skill beyond the ability of begin- 
ners in museum-making ; and coin-collecting, to be representative, 
demands a considerable outlay in money. But each farmer's boy 



^^w, 










CUKlOSniES OF THE SEA. 



\. 



ARTHUR'S HOME MUSEUM. 8 1 

could make a museum of the curiosities to be found on his own home 
place. Thoreau says : — 

" If with fancy unfurled 
, You leave your abode, 

You may go round the world 
By tlie old Marlboro' road." 

" The great number of curiosities that may be gathered from a 
single farmstead will greatly surprise a visitor, who will not be un- 
likely to regard the locality as one of the most curious in the country. 

" ' Some persons,' said wise Dr. Johnson, ' will see more things in 
a single ride in a Hempstead stage-coach than others will see in a 
tour of the world.' 

" The number of flowers that could be collected on a one-hundred- 
acre farm would in most parts of the country be a revelation to. any 
but a practical botanist. A book of these pressed flowers is a treasure 
for the farm-museum. So also with the different kinds of woods that 
may be collected on a farm ; and again, feathers. 

" The minerals that may be collected on a single farm are usually 
numerous. It might be well for a school or a boys' club to offer 
premiums for the largest collections of pressed flowers and of minerals 
to be found on any one farm in a township. The search would be- 
come a study ; the study a taste and habit, and the habit develop a 
studious character. 

Humorous Collections. 

" Among the curiosities in the Philadelphia mint is a ' coin made 

in Philadelphia two thousand years ago.' This pleasant use of an 

Asian name leads more people to examine this coin than the thousands 

of others in the wonderful cabinets. It is often annoying to a serious 

collector to see his friends turn away from curiosities of worth, to talk 

over what is mereiy quaint and humorous. 

" Any young collector can have many oddities. Old toys, pictures, 

6 



82 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

riddles, sports and games, masks ; curious growths of parts of trees, 
and animal-shaped roots may claim his attention. He must not have 
a dull museum." 

Arthur searched the garret, fields, and farms, and constructed such 
a museum ; but when it was so nearly completed as to become inter- 
esting, his ambition suddenly changed into plans for making collec- 
tions on a larger plan. He had been to Cambridge, Mass., and seen 
the collection of antique pottery from ancient mounds, in the Peabody 
Museum ; and it was his wish to visit the Smithsonian Institute in 
Washington, and see the relics of the Cliff Dwellers. The plan of a 
journey to the Mississippi Valley, Mexico, and the Islands of the Dis- 
covery seemed to open to him a fine opportunity to collect interesting 
material for a large home museum. 

" I hope that we shall go by the way of Washington," he said one 
day to his father. 

" Why? " asked Mr. Green. 

" So that I may see the Museum of the Smithsonian Institute," 
said Arthur. 

"We can take that route," said his father. "The usual way to 
Chicago is by Albany and Detroit. It would be a good plan to go by 
the way of Washington, and so start on our educational journey from 
the Columbus doors of the Capitol." 

" I see," said Arthur, " how I can enlarge my museum, and make it 
like a picture book of history. We are really going over the scenes of 
Early America. I want a museum that will mean something and 
teach something, and I now shall have the opportunity to collect such a 
one. I am glad, father, you taught me how to form the little home 
museum. I now can make it evolve and grow, and I have caught the 
spirit of seeking things that recall the events of the past ; and the more 
I love the study of history, the greater is my wish to illustrate it in 
the museum." 

" One step," repeated Mr. Green, " is all the way." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SPANISH CLASS. — LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 




T the evenings of their lessons the Spanish Class gave 
an hour to the language, and an hour to social 
entertainments. The entertainment followed the 
lesson, and to this guests were invited. The enter- 
tainment consisted for the most part of reading, 
tableaux, and music. The topics were often Spanish 
and historical, but sometimes miscellaneous and humorous ; and on 
several occasions Mrs. Green entertained the class and guests by re- 
lating folk-lore stories and amusing tales of social life. Mrs. Green's 
stories had so much that was suggestive in them that they were always 
received with delight, and it came to be the usual question with the 
class, after the lesson and entertainment, — 

" Now, Mrs. Green, will you not give us something lively ? " 
Arthur often gave the class something " lively," in the form of 
questions which tested their progress. He once said to Mr. Green, 
the teacher : " I have been thinking that if I knew only one question 
in Spanish, I could travel with that through all Spanish countries." 
" What is that question } " 

*' This, — ' What do you call thatV How do you ask that ques- 
tion in Spanish } " 

" Cdmo se llama eso ? " * and the answer would be, " Eso se llama — "' 
" I should only have to be able to ask that question to learn 
everything." 

* Co'moh say lyah'mah ay'soh. 



84 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

He often asked different members of the class that question, which 
he thought would prove a key to the language in travelling, but almost 
invariably received the answer, " No se " or " No comprendo, Senor." 

The class had an evening of Spanish historical tableaux, which 
were acted history. The history and literature of Spain and Spanish 
countries offer delightful opportunities for tableaux. 

The coming year, which celebrates the American discovery, invites 
a revival of Spanish historical tableaux and music. 

The stringed instruments of the Latin races and the South are 
growing in popular favor, as the romances of the Great Discovery 
again become active in the student's experience. Among the scenes 
that may be effectively presented in tableaux with the music of the 
cavalier and bolero, we may suggest Columbus as a boy on the quay of 
Genoa, after the manner of the exquisite statuette in the Boston Art 
Museum, a picture of which many of our readers may have seen ; 
Columbus at the gate of La Rabida ; Columbus's first sight of 
Isabella ; Columbus listening to the music of land birds, which music 
may be imitated; the Te Deum of Columbus at San Salvador, which 
music may be sung by an unseen chorus ; Columbus's first interview 
with Indians ; his second meeting with Isabella ; his narration to the 
Spanish sovereigns on the field of Sante Fe ; the Viceroy in chains, 
and his death. 

On the field of Sante Fe at Barcelona the chapel choir of Isabella 
sang a Te Deum when Columbus had finished the narrative of the 
Discovery. Columbus appeared in rich court dress on this occasion, 
and was attended by Indians with plumes, jewels, and tropic birds. 
This' scene would make a rich historical tableau for music. Any one 
of the old Te Deums might not inappropriately be chanted. 

Mr. Diaz had travelled in Spain and in Spanish-American coun- 
tries. He was a lover of poetry, and often wrote verse. He gave 
several talks at the entertainments on Spanish music, and on curious 
scenes that the class would see in the Columbian seas. 

Mr. Green suggested the courses of entertainincr reading for the 



LITERARY AND jJUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 85 

class. He once gave the class an essay on the subject of such read- 
ings ; and as our young friends often are found asking for such advice, 
we give a part of this paper here. We hope that other Spanish 
classes may be formed on the plan in this narrative, and so we present 
a view of all the methods of the developriient which this social club 
employed. 

Tennyson says that we are " a part of all t^iat we have met." 
Books to-day are the models and builders of life. GoQd readings form 
as a rule a standard from which there comes no relapse in taste, except 
from loss of personal character. The memories of evenings that have 
helped life are long inspirations to young people ; harvests that ripen 
to the end, and shed their good seeds for other soils. The thoughts 
of youth, Longfellow says, are " long, long thoughts ; " and Robert 
Southey thus speaks of his beautiful experience in the companionship 
of good books, — 

" With them I take delight in weal, 

And seek relief in woe, 
And while I understand and feel 

How much to them I owe, 
My cheeks have often been bedewed 
With tears of heartfelt gratitiide." 

Ballads of Genius. 

Classical ballads and sympathetic narrative poems are popular 
features of reading-clubs, and should have a place in home readings. 
I make a selection of a few ballads that are favorites in the elocution- 
ary schools and reading-circles of Boston : — 

1 . Coleridge's " Ancient Mariner." 

2. Rossetti's " Sister Helen," with Delsarte dramatic action. 

3. Poe's " Raven," en tableau. 

4. Mrs. Craik's " Douglas," with music accompaniment. 

5. Longfellow's " Old Clock on the Stairs," with voice imitation of 
the pendulum. 

6. Tennyson's " Bugle Song." 



86 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE, MISSISSIPPI. 

Six Wonderful. 'Short Stories. 

" What are six short stories that bear the stamp of genius or that 
are representative?" maybe ^sked by the director of a reading-club. 
I once met with the following selection as classics with which all 
should be familiar as a matter of literary intelligence: — 

1. Irving's " Rip Van Winkle." 

2. Baron Fouoae's " Undine." 

3. Poe's " Gold Bug." 

4. Dickeris's " Christmas Carol." 

5. Mrs, Spofford's " Amber Gods." 

6. Edward Everett Hale's " Man without a Country." 
/ 

y^ Readings in Biography. 

Biographical reading is one of the strongest influences in the 
education of character. Innumerable lives have found inspirations 
for good or sympathetic direction by reading of biography. Young 
people often find, as it were, themselves in biography, or a character of 
like tendencies, views, and purposes ; and such a character becomes a 
model for the new sculptor of the marble of life. 

Courses of biographical readings in a family may be arranged by 
selections of the most impressive chapters from classic and popular 
biography. I suggest six evening readings. 

1. The Early Life of Horace. Little Classics. 

2. Selections from Plutarch's Lives. 

3. The chapters in Boswell's " Life of Dr. Johnson " that relate to 
" Oliver Goldsmith ''' and " The Vicar of Wakefield." 

4. Selections from Southey's '• Life of Nelson." 

5. Selection from " Life of Bishop Patterson," by Charlotte Mary 
Yonc:e. 

6. Selections from the " Life of Miss Alcott." 

Lockhart's '' Life of Scott " opens a good study to the works of 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 8/ 

Scott ; and Samuel Smiles's " Industrial Biography" is full of force and 
noteworthy directions. 

As a rule, an adult reading-club in the home should read the 
best selections first. I was recently asked to select six master- 
pieces of the best literature with which intelligent young minds should 
be familiar, for six readings in the adult home circle. I chose the 
following : — 

1. Plato's "Death of Socrates," and the "Argument for Immor- 
tality." In contrast with this read the " Discourse at the Last Supper," 
as recorded by Saint John. 

2. Virgil's " Pollio," translation. In connection with this read 
Isaiah xi. and Ix. ; Horace's " De Arte Poetica." 

3. " Midsummer Night's Dream," Shakspeare. In connection, 
Mendelssohn's music to the " Midsummer Night's Dream," or at least 
the " Wedding March." 

4. Carlyle's " Sartor Resartus." Abridge this work ; introduce 
it by the story of its composition, and assign the most vivid and 
remarkable chapters to sympathetic readers. 

5. Browning's " Paracelsus." 

6. Lowell's " Vision of Sir Launfal." 

It may be thought that these selections as a whole rise above the 
popular taste and appreciation ; but they represent a part of the 
highest spiritual teaching and the best intellectual and literary 
achievements. The Discourse of Socrates before drinking the hem- 
lock, and the " Pollio " (IV. Eclogue) may look uninteresting on a 
list of topics, but an intense interest is awakened when the study of 
them begins. They open wide doors of history, and stimulate the 
best thought, and fix a standard and leave an impression of literary 
character. 

Carlyle's " French Revolution," which is a moral analysis of thrill- 
ing and dramatic events, Macaulay's " Essays," and Thackeray's 
" Henry Esmond " are excellent selections for a course of home 
readings. They are character education. 



88 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Where a selection for an evening's readings may seem heavy to 
young minds unused to stimulating thoughts, let the exercise be 
followed by music, or light character recitations. Discussion of the 
topic is far better, if a lively interest be awakened in the readings. 
But recreation is desirable after sustained mental effort, and the 
recreative arts should have their full share in household experiences. 

In most reading-clubs music should be introduced. This may be 
made educational. The historic ballad is a picture of the past ; and this 
kind of ballad, which is so much esteemed in other countries, needs to 
become a part of the educational influences of our own homes. His- 
torical ballad concerts are becoming a popular feature of New York 
life, as they are of the social life of all European cities. Our country, 
which is patriotic in its literature, should be more patriotic in its music. 

I select six patriotic ballads that voice American life, and that are 
well adapted to the reading-circle: — 

1. The Vacant Chair. 

2. Keller's American Hymn. 

3. Ben Bolt. 

4. My Old Kentucky Home. 

5. The Sword of Bunker Hill. 

6. The Bridge. 

Mr. Green suggested much reading in preparation for the planned 
journey. Among the popular books were " Wau-ban," or " Early 
Days in the Northwest," by Mrs. John Kinzie ; and " Cuba with Pen 
and Pencil," by Hazard. 

At tliese entertainments the interpolated stories by Mrs. Green 
were favorites, and afforded a relief to the more formal exercises. 
They had a certain humor about them which the young people found 
in their afterthought was employed to teach them the lessons of right 
conduct in life. 

One of the stories which she was asked to repeat touched several 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 89 

points of social life in which there is need of correction. 'Arthur liked 
it, — it " hit off " the girls, he said, — and we give it here, and leave 
the reader to see how it applied to the ambitious little society. 

MRS. PARRISH'S SURPRISE-PARTY.i 

" Now I will tell you just how it will be," said Mrs. Parrish to her cousin 
Miss Flora Parrish, confidentially. *' Are we alone in the room? Just let 
me shut the door, for I would not allow so much as a breath of the secret 
to escape. 

" Well, husband and I have been married twenty-five years to-day, but our 
wedding was celebrated two weeks after our marriage, on Christmas night. 
My plan is to have a silver-wedding surprise-party next Christmas night." 

" Yes ; I see, but not very clearly. How would it be a surprise-party, if 
you arranged it yourself ? " 

" It is to be a surprise-party to husband, and not to myself. I want 
you to help me on the occasion, and so to manage to receive the guests that 
he will not know of their coming until he enters the parlors. He usually goes 
to his room in the third story after ten, to read and smoke. The cards of 
invitation shall read, ' Do not ring.' After the guests have arrived, which 
must be before eight o'clock, as stated in the printed invitations, I will say to 
husband : ' Henry dear, do you remember that to-night is the twenty-fifth 
anniversary of our wedding-party? Would you not like to go down into the 
parlor with me, and have me sing to you some of the old songs that you 
loved to hear in those days when we were so hopeful and happy ? ' He 
of course will be ready to go, — he has no musical taste or culture, but he has 
a kind of passion for old songs like Moore's. 

" The parlors shall be quite dark, and I will take down the dark lamp- 
lighter with me, and as we enter the room I will say, handing him the lamp- 
lighter: 'Here, light the chandelier, dear. I wish I had invited a few old 
friends to meet us here to-night, — the Van Burcns, the Hudsons, the Dexters, 
and the Pinks.' Then he will light the chandelier, and they zuill all be there. 

"What a surprise it will be! Do you see? I am going to ask Miss 
Willemine Pink to play, and her elder sister, Miss Marian, to read an original 
poem. Da you see? 

" Don't you think the plan excellent? My plans always succeed, as you 
know, and end 9o happily. I think I was born to make other people happy: 
some folks are sent into the world just for that: 'tis my mission." 

1 By permission of Harper Brothers. 



go ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

"Yes; but—" 

" But what? Why hesitate to give your full approval? why qualify? " 

" Mr, Parrish is not a very warm friend of some of the people whom you 
propose to invite ; certainly not of the Pinks. I fear Miss Willemine's playing 
and Miss Marian's poem would hardly be to his taste, and a wedding anniver- 
sary should be a very happy occasion every way, — harmonious not only with 
the event, but with the personal feelings of both the wife and husband. You 
remember the musical? " 

Mrs. Parrish was silent a moment, and lay back in her chair. She did 
recall the musical : it was tJie terrible recollection of her married life, and the 
great public humiliation of her long and reputedly brilliant social career. 

Not that she had not experienced keen regret at times at her good 
husband's lack of the highest appreciation of literature and art. At her 
Browning party, for example, when an ancient literary friend of once conspic- 
uous and worthy Mrs. Sigourney had asked him, not knowing what else to say, 
if he " liked Browning," he had answered, " Yes, what I can understand." 
And when the same ancient lady of such commendable literary traditions had 
put her ear-trumpet to the side of her cap, curls, and ear-ring, and had further 
asked, "What poems of his do you best understand?" he had answered, 
" ' The Pied Piper of Hamelin' and — " The whole brilliant literary company 
were listening with intense interest. There w^as an embarrassing silence. Mr. 
Parrish again gasped. " And — " 

And all the rest of them, he means," added Mrs. Parrish, " He appreciates 
the beautiful, and all that is beautiful, of course." 

Mr. Parrish's usually pale face took on a youthful tinge, and he played 
with the spoons, and seemed about to fan himself with a dinner-plate. 

After the party Mrs. Parrish was reproachful, " Think," she said, before 
retiring, to humiliated Mr, Parrish, "what a confession you made — '"The 
Pied Piper of Hamelin" and — ' Suppose I had not been present, Mr. 
Parrish? " 

The musical, — that, as I have intimated, was a more serious affair. Mr. 
Parrish on that occasion had not only shown a lack of the highest love for 
the fine arts, but had made an exhibition of a want of self-control that 
was unworthy of such a gentleman. 

The social life of Mrs, Parrish had been an evolution. It began at a 
church fair, where she had assumed the part of " Rebekah at the Well," in the 
interest of benevolence, and in the same interest had sold lemonade in Oriental 
adornments at ten cents a glass, out of a very unscriptural well. In " Mrs. 
Jarley " she proved a great success financially. This led her to a more ambitious 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 9 1 

effort, — a coffee-party for the "benefit of the common people" (her own 
people had lived on a milk-farm in New Hampshire, and were contented and 
happy in the pastoral pursuits of such a life). After a visit to Florida she 
gave an orange-party, which was really unique and useful as well as popular. 
Her rooms on this occasion were festooned with orange colors, mingled with 
Spanish moss and mistletoe, which she had ordered from a plantation on the 
St. John's. The guests were dressed in orange, the table was set in cloths and 
furnishings of the same color, and on the great orange cake was the bough of 
an orange-tree, on which were stuffed Baltimore birds. Oranges of all kinds 
covered the tables ; grape-fruit, mandarin and navel oranges, tangerines, mus- 
catines, and all the more common varieties of the usual Florida grove. 

The popularity of this party was not owing wholly to its uniqueness. A 
barrel or more of choice oranges were left after the feast ; and these were sent 
in baskets to the sick of the place, to the aged, and the children. For the 
sake of originality, a negro with a banjo was brought in to sing and play at 
the tables the songs of the cotton-fields ; and Mr. Parrish, to use his wife's not 
over-complimentary words, " really acted as though he enjoyed it more than a 
nocturne by Chopin or a fugue by Bach." 

Successful as the leading lady in church theatricals, Mrs. Parrish began to 
hold receptions, musicals, and Browning readings in her rather elegant parlors. 
She grew ambitious to m.ake her receptions particularly notable by the presence 
of people of genius. Young poets, and musicians, and visitors from abroad who 
boasted the blood of titled families, were especially welcome. A poem in a 
newspaper or the publication of a song made the author a child of the 
immortal gods in the appreciative eyes of Mrs. Parrish. On finding a spirit so 
touched with the divine fire, her cards of invitation would read, " To meet 
John Johnson, the new poet," or "Jacques Jackson, the new composer," or 
" Mr. Garland, cousin of the Earl of Flowers." 

The cousins of the earls had given some trouble to Mrs. Parrish on account 
of their old royal want of ready money; and her loans for board bills, that they 
might honor her receptions, had never, in three distinct cases, been repaid. 
Her trouble came, however, more from Mr. Parrish than from a sense of her 
own loss. His rcprovals were very mild, but uncomfortable. " My old gray 
goose keeps a kind of flying-school," he once said in her hearing. And again, 
" Arline does not seem to know that time always speaks the truth about every- 
body and everything; she thinks that a cat in a fog is as big as a tiger." But 
after some such philosophical lesson he paid all Mrs. Parrish's benevolent bills, 
and was rewarded by the charitable aside, " My husband docs not understand 
these things, you know." 



g2 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The humiliating musical, — it happened in this wise. Mrs. Parrish had 
invited the pupils of the Laurel Hill Seminary to enjoy an evening's hospitalityj: 
and they had accepted. In the midst of the festivity Mr. Parrish had returned 
from the store, tired and nervous. He stopped in the hall, and glanced in 
upon the scene of pink cheeks and blazing astrals. 

" Husband, you must come in : I am sure you will be so happy to meet 
these dehghtful young people. We shall have some music soon." 

Mr. Parrish thought of valses by Moszkouski, of scherzos and scherzettos, 
of a fearful bang at each end of the piano, and runs up and down the keys, 
" after Scatterbrains." It had all become a horror to him, expressive of no 
sentiment whatever, — a mere mechanical display that was a torture to his 
untrained ears. 

'' Do ]o'm us, dear," urged Mrs. Parrish. " Miss Lacombe is going to favor 
us with an estudiantino." 

Just what tJiat could be, poor Mr. Parrish failed to comprehend ; but it 
sounded musical in name, and with some misgivings he joined the happy 
company of young musical divinities. 

The piano was at last opened, and a hush fell on the flower-perfumed room. 
The bright colors of silk and jewels ceased to mingle; and Mrs. Parrish, in 
black velvet and diamonds, and with the air of an old society duchess, said, 
''Now shall we have some music?" 

There was a dead silence. 

" Perhaps Miss Lacombe will now favor us with an estudiantino?" 

" I would be pleased to give you some Spanish music, but I never play 
without my notes." 

" Did you not bring your notes with you? I hoped you would. Give us 
a gavotte or capriccio, — something light, as an introduction." 

" I assure you that I would be glad to do so, my dear Mrs. Parrish, but I 
never play without my notes." 

"Mr. Carmen, I am sure you will favor us — perhaps with one of your 
great Wagnerian roles." 

Mr. Carmen bowed (low vest, roses, hair ii la Pompadour). " I assure you, 
Mrs. Parrish, that it would give mc great pleasure to sing, if some one would 
play my accompaniments." 

l^ut no one was found to play an accompaniment to a " great Wagnerian 
role" without 'notes, and poor Mrs. Parrish could find no music of any "great 
Wagnerian role" for a male voice; and so Mr. Carmen had to be excused, 
having made for himself a great reputation by what happy circumstances had 
forbidden him to attempt, like Mr. Parrish's simile of the " cat in the fog." 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 



93 



" I am sure that Miss Emory will now sing Gounod's always enchanting 
song, * Sing, smile, slumber.' " 

To the relief of all, Miss Emory said: " I will do the best that I can to 
serve you. English words or French?" 

"Oh, French," said Mrs. Parrish. " I have the French words here; " and 
she laid the sheet music on the piano. 

Even unmusical Mr. Parrish liked that song. " There is real poetry in it," 
he said. He was now glad that he had been allured into the flying-school. 

There was a light silvery ripple along the keys, charming the ear at once, 
bringing the mind into perfect harmony with the airy serenade, and then there 
came a pause. 

" I have never sung it in this key," was the awful explanation. " I would 
have to transpose it." 

" Oh, please do so ! " said Mrs. Parrish. 

" Yes, do," said Mr. Parrish. " Transpose it any way, but sing it. That is 
one of my favorites." 

There followed a strange mingling of the keys, a disagreeable thump, 
thump, thumping, here, there, and yonder. It became as interesting as a five- 
year-old pupil's first music-lesson. Mr. Parrish moved about impatiently, and 
at last asked, — 

"Cannot some of you play that accompaniment? What is a musical 
education for?" 

All could play that accompaniment, but no one could play a transposition 
of it, or was willing to attempt it at sight ; and so the Gounod serenade seemed 
about to fail. 

• Mr. Parrish's face began to wear a business-like look. " Cannot some one 
sing 'Sweet Genevieve'?" he asked. 

" A simple American ballad," added Mrs. Parrish. She asked three under- 
graduates, but each one had a " cold," and " ought not to have been out." 

"Well, I declare, this is too bad," said Mr. Parrish. "Wife, where 's our 
French table-girl, Arietta? Send for Arietta!" and Mr. Parrish seized the 
silver handle of a bell-knob over the shelf, and a sharp ringing was heard in and 
from the kitchen below. 

A servant appeared. 

" Send up Arietta." 

Arietta appeared ; bright, petite, all smiles. 

" Well, Monsieur." 

" Have you your notes? " 

" Yes, Monsieur." 



g^ ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

"Where?" 

" Here, Monsieur," pointing to her white little throat. 

" Can you play an accompaniment? " 

" Oui, Monsieur." 

" In what key?" 

" Any key, — make them up." 

"How?" 

" Out of my head." 

" A skylark has indeed come to the flying-school. Can you sing that song 
of Gounod, — that serenade, * Chante, chante ' — -that one?" 

" Yes." 

" Have you a cold? " 

" No." 

" Well, sing." 

Arietta sat down at the piano, and after a most graceful and rippling 
introduction sang the serenade in pure French, with a delicacy and vivacity 
that would have charmed the ear of any popular audience. 

" Thank you," said Mr. Parrish. " Now I think I will be excused ; " and 
without so much as saying good-by to any one, he retired to his room. 

" My husband is so peculiar ! " said Mrs. Parrish. " I hope that you will 
excuse him." 

The musical came to an end at an early hour, and never was called 
together again. But it came to be a matter of common report that Mrs. Parrish 
had given a musical, and that Mr. Parrish had called in the table-girl to sing 
and play. The table-girl and Mr. Parrish were the only people present that 
seemed to be quite satisfied with the evening's performance. The matter 
became a part of the witty gossip of the society papers, and so a temporary 
eclipse came over Mrs. Parrish's social sun. 

The plans for the Christmas night surprise-party on the practical Mr. 
Parrish grew. Miss Pink the elder began her poem for the occasion ; and as 
the greatness of the event, with its boundary of twenty-five years, grew upon 
her, the poem also grew. She slipped over to Mrs. Parrish's private room on 
several mornings, when she was sure that Mr. Parrish would be at the store, to 
inform the delighted lady of the growth of the poem under the enlightenments 
of successive inspirations. The poem had a solemn title for a festival, " The 
Flight of Time." It recalled to Mrs. Parrish the muses of good Robert Pollock 
and Dr. Young. 

"What do you think of the introduction?" asked Miss Pink, on her first 
stolen visit. 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 95 

"Whene'er I lift my eyes from things that are, 
And fix them on things that are not, 
Then the things that are not are 
The things that are." 

" As mysterious as it is majestic," answered Mrs. Parrish. 

" Then follows an apostrophe to Chronos," said Miss Pink ; " and then an 
apostrophe to Eros." > 

" A grand conception ; but — " 

" A suggestion? " 

" I 'm afraid husband, you know, don't know, you know, or might not 
know, Chronos from Eros. His mind is peculiar; it can only reach so high, 
or go so far, — does not rise above the old English poets in poetry, or above the 
'Messiah' or ' Stabat Mater' or 'Trovatore' in music. Some minds cannot. 
They can master simple arithmetic, but are lost in the Rule of Three." 

It was arranged that the younger Miss Pink should play the " Wedding 
March " from " Lohengrin " as soon as Mr. Parrish should light the chandelier on 
the anniversary night, and at the first touch of the music the whole company 
should exclaim, " A merry silver wedding ! " three times. Congratulations 
were to follow, during which Miss Pink was to play the " Swedish Wedding 
March," and the musical programme was to end with Mendelssohn's " Wedding 
March." After the congratulations Mr. Elvi Sylver was to present Mr. Parrish 
with a silver coin from Mrs. Parrish (paid for out of the aforesaid Mr. Parrish's 
own accounts). Then Miss Pink the elder was to read the address to Chronos 
and Eros, and recall the vicissitudes of twenty-five married years. 

" I can hardly sleep for thinking of it," said Mrs. Parrish to the Misses 
Pink. " I never dreamed in my simple girlhood that I would ever become a 
rich man's wife and a society woman, and a source of inspiration to young and 
gifted minds. I stand amazed when I recall what twenty-five years have 
wrought." 

Mrs. Parrish had influenced local politics, and she felt that the aristocratic 
suburb owed much to her influence in public aff"airs, as well as in the develop- 
ment of the fine arts. When it was proposed by the Van Burens to fhake 
" Lissory," as the suburb where these important people lived was called, a very 
select community, from which the "common people" should be excluded by 
selling no land at less than five thousand dollars per lot, she had favored the 
scheme, even against the views and principles of her very democratic husband. 
Mr. Parrish was very liberal in his political views, and had once shocked the 
Common Council by saying that he did not believe that William the Conqueror 
had had any more royal blood in him than a hod-carrier, or that any other 



96 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

king had ever had, and that it was only personal worth that made any crown 
really royal. The Hudsons, Baxters, and Pinks — families who had grown rich 
by impoverishing other people by sharp speculations — had joined the Van 
Burens in creating a suburb that was to exclude the common people for the 
sake of living " in accordance with the higher social standards." Mr. Parrish 
was an honest man, and had become prosperous by the profits of an honest 
business. He had yielded much to his wife's influence in the selection of a 
home, but he had never thoroughly liked his pretentious neighbors, and he 
especially disliked the Van Burens, the Hudsons, the Dexters, and the Pinks, — • 
people whom Mrs. Parrish was particularly desirous that he should regard as 
his confidential friends. 

The short dark days of December moved on in a hurrying procession 
toward the gladness of the holidays. The last robins sought the covers of the 
frosty woods, and the snow-birds came to the door-yard trees with their single 
note. The evening lamps were early lighted under a steel gray sky. The 
gentians died, the red berries lined the wayside walls, children gathered 
creeping-jenny, and the markets began to grow green with the usual decorations 
for the church and fireside. 

" I shall decorate my parlors this year with silver," said Mrs. Parrish to her 
housekeeper. " I have a particular reason for it. I am going to buy new 
curtains with silver thread, the lamp-shades must be of silver paper, the silver 
ornaments must take the place of the marble ones, and the silver vases must be 
got ready for white roses. When the lamps are lighted, the rooms must 
glimmer, — do you see ? " 

The well-trained housekeeper sazv. She was used to these things. She 
had prepared the house for a pink tea, a crazy reception, and the famous 
orange-party; and her fancy's eye saw just the effect that her mistress wished to 
produce. So the rooms were prepared to glimmer like silver waves when the 
lamps should be lighted on the evenings of the holidays. 

The good housekeeper added some novel effects of her own invention. 
She " set" the evergreen decorations in a solution of alum and water, and thus 
tipped them with silvery crystals. When the good woman's work of decoration 
was complete, and the rooms were lighted as an experiment, they looked, as 
Mrs. Parrish enthusiastically expressed it, like " the palace halls of the moon." 

" I always had a genius for such things," she said. " Some people do. It 
is not every one that writes poetry with the pen ; many do it by creating 
expressions. Those rooms arc a poem. They express sentiment. Everything 
beautiful that expresses sentiment is a poem. Cleopatra's barge was a poem, 
Marie Antoinette's Trianon, and all the masks of Madame de Pompadour ; 
and /am a poet." 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMEXTS. 



97 



Silver cake was made in abundance, and a set of silver goblets was hired. 
Miss Pink added to her poem some stanzas on the " silver tide of life." Then 
a new idea took possession of Mrs. Parrish's poetic mind. 

The good lady had done one really unique and useful thing in her social 
career besides the famous orange-party. It took the form of " Readings with 
Musical Accompaniments." The village organist was famous for improvising 
in musical moods, and he had been at Mrs. Parrish's service in these very 
charming entertainments. Mrs. Parrish had once heard Bellew's musical read- 
ings, and she came away from the gifted young Englishman's performances 
with a discovery which she thought would make even a series of parlor readings 
interesting to young people. So she and the organist arranged " Twelfth Night " 
for an experiment, assigning the parts to certain young students of the Music 
School, and helping them to appear in costume. The organist was a genius, 
and well instructed in the old English music and their recent collections ; and 
" Twelfth Night " proving a great success, it was followed by reading all of the 
plays of Shakspeare which offer a field for music. 

She would have Miss Pink's poem read to music, — silvejy ^\\xs\c. True, 
she had not been able to quite comprehend the introductory lines, which made 
the " things are not " appear the " things that are ; " yet they vaguely recalled 
to her the fact that memory is the " resurrection of the lost years," as she ex- 
pressed her understanding of the very obscure passage to Miss Pink herself. 

The snow fell one long dark night. The sleigh-bells jingled in the morning. 
The trees were a harvest of icicles. People hurried in the street. The stores 
were lighted by four o'clock. The stars had a cold look. The sleigh-bills 
jingled everywhere, and Christmas came. 

Mrs. Parrish's invitations had multiplied. All was ready, even to the dark 
lamp-lighter and the muffler for the door-bell. 

The Christmas dinner was unusually quiet, which fact did not seem to have 
any depressing effect on the usually philosophical Mr. Parrish. 

After a good dinrfer the quiet gentleman went to his own room " upstairs," 
as he was always glad to do. He was secretly thankful that there were no 
guests in the house, and that he could get a few hours in his dressing-gown, 
with his magazines and reviews, by the open fire. 

" Now I am going to read and take a nap. I 'm tired." 

This was said to Mrs. Parrish on leaving the table, and was intended as a 
gentle reminder that he did not wish to be disturbed. 

Two or more blissful hours passed. Then just as he was deep in an article 
on "The Future of English-speaking Nations," there came a nervous tap on the 
door. 



gS Z/GZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Silence. 

Another tap, a little louder. 

Mr. Parrish said reluctantly, " Come in." He did not leave his easy-chair. 
Why should he? He had invited no one to his room ; and as to Mrs. Parrish, 
he had politely told her that he wished to be alone. 

Mrs. Parrish opened the door, and came in, still and stately, in velvet and 
silver lace. 

" I am sorry to disturb you," she said ; *' but do you remember, hu.sband, 
what night this is ? " 

" Yes, Christmas night." 

" But another? " 

" Two nights in one? " 

" Yes." 

She opened an enormous silver fan, and began moving it to and fro. 

" Husband, do you remember what happened twenty-five years ago to- 
night? " 

'•No. What?" 

" Our wedding-party. To-night should be our silver wedding." 

" Ah, yes, if you reckon in that way. Don't seem as though we had been 
married twenty-five years." 

" Yes, twenty-five long years." 

" Well, Arline, you have been a good wife, a pretty good wife, or used to be 
before your head became unsettled by society. I ought to have made you a 
present of a silver something." 

Mrs. Parrish waved her silver fan uneasily. Mr. Parrish was not talking in a 
susceptible way. 

" Husband, do you remember our early life in the little red house among 
the New Hampshire hills?" 

" Yes." 

" And the sheep? " 

" We have a different kind of sheep around us now." 

" And the cool spring that ran from the mountain-side, to which you used 
to go for water? " 

" Yes." 

"And the old dairy-house?'*' 

" Yes." Mr. Parrish dropped the review, and ran his hands through his hair. 
'' Yes, Arline; yes, Arline. And one cannot find the lost years of youth even 
among the springs of P^lorida." Mr. Parrish began to hum the tune of the 
"Old Oaken Bucket." 

" I used to sing that song when we were young," continued Mrs. Parrish. 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 99 

"Would you not like to go down into the parlor and hear me play it and sing 
it again? " 

" Yes, I would, Arline. It would seem like the old days, whose true happi- 
ness I shall never know again, — a fine house is not happiness." 

The hills of New Hampshire seemed to rise before him and haunt him ; 
the old red house, the school-house, and the mountain springs. 

" Arline, I am glad that for once we are alone. I am so weary of all this 
false life, in which selfish people are seeking pleasure, pleasure, and not the 
happiness of others. Happiness never comes to those who seek it, Arline. 
You said that your Florida orange-party made you happy because it made 
others happy. Your show parties do not make you happy. I wish you would 
leave off" being a waiter at Vanity Fair. I want you to sing to-night all of your 
old songs, — Tom Moore's ' The Light-House,' ' Twilight Dews,' * Thou sweet 
gliding Kedron,' and ' Home, sweet Home.' Oh, I am so glad that I am at 
home, and I am glad that every one else is ! I never want to see any more of 
society, unless it be to help somebody or to subserve some good purpose. 
Why, I 'd rather hear old Parson Bellamy preach Calvinism ; that did at least 
set one to thinking vigorously, if it were only to think one's self out of it." 

Mrs. Parrisli waved her fan. She went to the door, opened it. Silence. 
She was sure that all was ready. The organist was there; Miss Pink, she 
fancied, was at the piano ; the elder Miss Pink was waiting with her long poem ; 
and the whole company were standing in full dress in the darkened parlors, 
ready to shout, " A happy silver wedding ! " She felt sure that that was the 
condition of aft*airs below stairs, and she was right. 

" Husband," said the lady in velvet and silver lace, " I have been unselfish 
this Christmas. I have given my whole thought and time to a plan to make 
happy a single poor unhappy man who lives beneath his privileges. When 
you come to know how charitable I have been, you will better appreciate your 
wife of twenty-five years." Mrs. Parrish swung her fan. 

" But why, Arline, did you put on that party dress, all in spangles like a 
circus-rider's; and what possible use can you have for that fan? Why, it is 
large enough to raise a blizzard." 

" You will understand me better some day," returned Mrs. Parrish, with an 
air of mystery. " We must not quarrel to-night, dear, of all the nights of our 
lives. Now will you go down with me? " 

Mr. Parrish rose slowly; Mrs. Parrish brushed his hair, and rearranged his 
wrapper. Then she took the lamp-lighter from the shelf where she had placed 
it, lighted it from her husband's match-box, covered the fiame with the metal 
cap, fixed the non-conducting chain that was wound around the long igniting- 
tube, and opened the door. 



lOO ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The way down was easy. The hall lamp burned dim, the halls were silent, 
and Mrs. Parrish made a mysterious-looking figure, like a stage Lady Macbeth, 
with her dark lamp, velvet trail, jewels, and silver bangles. 

It was a part of Mrs. Parrish's plan to make Mr. Parrish say something, un- 
witting, pleasant about the guests in the opaque room, before the chandeliers 
were lio-hted. But in view of Mr. Parrish's expressions of gratitude at being for 
once able to be alone, this plan looked to her hazardous, even perilous. But 
she was a very politic woman, and equal to any trifling emergency ; and her 
bright mind was studying during her descent how to form her words, on open- 
in"- the parlor door, so as to elicit only the most flattering answers. 

The foot of the stairs was reached. Dead silence. 

Mrs. Parrish now timidly opened the parlor door. Darkness. The capped 
lamp-lighter did not add a ray except perpendicularly downward. 

There was an odor of roses and pine, a balmy air, like Tampa Bay or the 
Indian River. 

The two stood in the doorway. 

" I almost wish, husband, that we had invited a few of our old friends to- 
night. I know that you would have been glad to have met the Van Burens — " 

"Ahem!" 

This was encouraging. 

" And the Hudsons — " 

" Ahem ! ahem ! " 

Admirable. 

"And the Dexters?" 

" I tell you, Arlinc — " 

*' Yes, yes; I knew you would, and we might have had an anniversary poem 
from some delightful poetess, like Marian, you know ; and some better music 
than I can give you, — something brilliant on the piano, from a professional 
player, or an inspirational one, like Willemine." 

" How the cold shivers do run down my back ! " 

" I fear you have taken cold, dear." 

" Well, well ; don't let 's stand talking here in the dark ; light the chan- 
delier." 

•' Here is the lamp-lighter, dear." ^. 

" Did n't you bring down any matches?" 

" No; here is the lamp-lighter; take it." 

Mr. Parrish had never used the patent contrivance. He did not know that 
the metal cap was to be lifted from the bit of light at the top of the slender tube 
by the little chain; he thought it was to be pulled ofiflike a red-cap raspberry. 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. lOI 

Now the metal cap, although it covered but a bit of spirit flame, was in a 
condition to awaken very lively and decisive thoughts if touched. 

Mr. Parrish took hold of this bright and fiery particle with his usual delib- 
eration, pressing It between his thumb and finger. The result was electrical. 
There were strange, quick motions in the darkness. 

" Oh-o-o — all ye gods ! Wliat have I done? Now I have burnt my fingers, 
both of them too, with that pesky, rattle-trap contrivance. Oh-o ! Oh, my — " 

Here the lamp-Hghter dropped suddenly and sightless to the floor. 

"Oh, never, never mind, husband; never mind. I'll go and get some 
matches. There, there, never mind." 

" Never mind ! get into a hornets' nest, and ' never mind ; ' put your foot 
on a blistering stove, and ' never mind.' I wish you had my fingers for just one 
minute. Call the servants, — bring a dish of cold water. Quick ! I shall have 
a fit!" 

" Yes, yes. Don't get so excited ; you are usually cool. A little burn is n't 
anything. You should have removed the cap with the chain. There, there; 
you be perfectly still and quiet, and I will go and get some matches and some 
water." 

" Well, do ; for mercy sake, hurry. I sha'n't get over this all night. What 
are you waiting there for? Hurry! " 

Mrs. Parrish reluctantly disappeared. 

But Mr. Parrish could not obey his wife's wise counsel and " be still ; " he 
had to talk to help relieve the pain. And he did. 

" I thought I was going to have one day of quiet, — I did, — and not to be 
bothered by calls from people who have nothing to do, — I did. A pretty plan 
that would have been to have invited that old stock-gambler Van Buren, and 
that real-estate fraud Hudson, and those shoddy Dexters, and had a great long 
string of senseless poetry by that empty-headed Marian Pink, and one of those 
awful piano solos by — ■" 

" There, there," said Mrs. Parrish, hastily returning. " Do be calm, love. 
Here 's a match." 

But Mr. Parrish was skeptical about his wife's lamp-lighters in the dark. 

" Light it yourself." 

" Now, husband dear, be prepared for a surprise." 

" A surprise ! I guess if you had undertaken to light the room with a coal 
of fire, there would n't have been much left to surprise you in this world — nor 
any other." 

Mrs. Parrish touched the lighted match to the chandelier. The room was 
transformed, transfigured. \\. g/iintncrcd. But the piano was not played. The 



I02 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

company that stood like statues did not shout " A merry silver wedding ! " so> 
much as once. Miss Marian Pink did not unroll her poem. 

" I knew that you would be surprised," said Mrs. Parrish. 

" I am," said Mr. Parrish. 

" I think that we all are," said Mr. Van Buren. 

" I am," said Mr. Hudson. 

" And I," said Mr. Dexter. 

"And I am not I' said Miss Marian, the poetess, "I always knew that the 
man was just such an awful fool." 

The poem in her hand certainly contradicted the plain prose statement. 
Did it not say, — 

" He stands a tower among earth's grandest peers, 
The Solon wise of five-and-twenty years " ? 

There was a silence, a motionless silence, broken only by the unfortunate 
Mr. Parrish as he rubbed his fingers on his dressing-gown. The room glim- 
mered with silvery lustres, and was full of subtle perfumes. 

Then followed a light buzzing that grew into audible whispers : " He did say 
it ; " " He meant jj/^;/ ; " " He meant me ; " " He did not know what he said ! " 
"Yes, he did; — he knew;" "He was not accountable; " "A party like this 
invites such things." 

The reserve, amid all the preparation, brightness, and splendor, was quite 
unaccountable to poor Mrs. Parrish. She tried to have the programme carried 
forward, but was told that the " late unfortunate circumstance " had made it 
impossible. 

No one spoke to Mr. Parrish, who continued rubbing his fingers, except the 
sympathetic organist. 

" Are you not very much surprised?" 

" Very," rubbing his fingers vigorously. 

Jingle, jingle, jingle ! The sleighs came early for the guests. The drivers 
that night did not have to wait long out in the cold. The guests departed 
early. Their tongues were unloosed when once in the frosty air. 

Practical Mr. Parrish never dared to tell his wife the whole truth, but he 
was allowed to pass the next Christmas holiday in the quiet of his own room. 

But he never felt quite at ease at the recollection of the event, for another 
cause than his own loss to local polite society. His wife's intentions had really 
been very kind, as they often were, despite a little vanity, and he had some 
misgivings that he had not quite regarded these as a model husband should. 
However this might be, he never was heard to speak of his silver wedding. 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 103 

To the readings, music, and stones of the Hterary exercises of 
the class, Mr. Diaz sometimes added an original poem ; and with 
one of these we close this chapter, which gives a view of the working 
of a class study at home : — 

THE FLAG THAT THE EMIGRANTS CHEERED. 

Gibraltar rose dark, and the sun's disk burned low, 
Like a far gate of heaven with banners aglow; 
And red o'er the Pillars of Hercules blazed 
The Star of the Pilots of old, as we gazed. 
And swift the breeze freshened, and deep boomed the cun, 
And the ships of the nations swept by, one by one, — 
The Red Cross of England, the Tricolor proud. 
And the dark German Eagles in billows of cloud. 
Then the Flag of the Stars from the Western waves came, 
And passed in review by the old flags of fame. 
"Why are the ships shouting ? " Our feet forward pressed. — 
" 'T is the emigrants cheering." — " Which flag ? " — " Of the West." 
The Cross of Saint George 

Floated free o'er the main, 
The black German Eagles, 

The Lions of Spain, 
And the flags of all seas 

In the bright Straits appeared ; 
But, oh, 't was my own flag 

The emigrants cheered ! 

The emigrant mothers their gladdened eyes raised. 

And memories wove of the past as they gazed ; 

And their thin hands they waved 'neath tiie lone Afric Star, 

And greeted the flag of the new lands afar. 

Then the emigrant children laughed out with the rest. 

As their eyes caught the light of the Flag of the West. 

Laugh on, little ones, in your star-lighted way. 

To the Lakes of the States and the Georgian Bay ! 

Round the flag of your birthright the sea-birds are veering; 

'T is for you, not themselves, the old mothers are cheering. 

The Red Cross of Saint (icorge 
Waves free o'er the main. 

The Gallic Tricolor, 
The Lions of Spain, 



104 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

And the flags of all seas 

In the bright Straits appear; 

But oh ! 't is my own flag 
The children's hands cheer ! 

Young Romans were there, of the Eagles of old; 
Strong Charlemagne's sons, of the helmets of gold, 
The heirs of the heroes of world-making wars, 
Passed outward that hour in the night march of stars. 
All thought of the friends to their bosoms most true. 
Of the hearts of the Old World that beat in the New. 
Of the world-weary struggles of peoples oppressed, 
Of the Kingdom of God in the Suns of the West. 
The Cross of Saint George 

Passed them by on the main. 
The dark German Eagles, 

The Lions of Spain. 
Off Trafalgar's waters 

The last flag appeared ; 
But mine was the last flag 
That the emigrants cheered. 

That scene at Gibraltar in mind lingers yet ; 
That eve Andalusian what heart could forget ? 
And where'er I may roam through the nightfall of years, 
My heart will re-echo the emigrant's cheers. 
Can the soldier forget the last roll of the drum. 
Or the wanderer the song cf his mother at home, 
Or the patriot his vision of duty sublime. 
As seen on the towers of the summit of Time ? 
I still see the Eagles 

That swept o'er the main. 
The leonine banners 

Of England and Spain, 
The African starlight. 

The gray fortress-crest. 

And the emigrants cheering 

Their flag of the West. 

No voice of the bugle, no war-rolling drum. 
Disturbs the sweet peace of my roof-tree of home. 
But the Anthem of Liberty gladdens the main. 
And the chorus of hills wakes the patriot's strain. 
O flag of my own land, Hope's bow in the air. 
O'er my home let me lift thee, my altar of prayer ! 



LITERARY AND HUMOROUS ENTERTAINMENTS. 105 



Many flags have the people that grand deeds recall, 
But my own flag of faith is the pride of them all. 
The Red Cross of England 
Waves free o'er the main, 
The dark German Eagles, 

The Lions of Spain ; 
But ever while stars 

For all men shall appear, 
Our flag of all peoples 
The pilgrims will cheer. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. — " COMO SE LLAMA 

ESO?" 



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m 



RTHUR had a curious plan in mind. In his view 
" Cdmo se llama eso " was a key that would unlock 
all doors in Spanish-speaking countries, and next 
to it in value, " Traigame " (Bring me) would 
prove a willing servant. He would begin asking 
questions of Cuban boys and girls as soon as he 
should meet Spanish-speaking people; and he would commit to mem- 
ory the answers that he received, and the pronunciation of them, and 
he hoped one day to surprise the class by the way in which he would 
talk the language. If he had an apple, for example, he would ask a 
Cuban boy, "Cdmo se llama eso?" He would be answered "Una 
manzana," ^ and he would be careful to watch the lips of the speaker 
and repeat the word after him, and remember it as spoken. So with 
words like "una pera " (a pear), "una nuez " (a nut), "una rosa" (a 
rose), " una violeta" (a violet), " el melon " (a Melon). 

" I have a tongue," he said, " and a boy can ask questions ; and I 
will get Cuba to teach me, and it will be done correctly." 

The thought occurred to him that to receive polite and willing 
answers he must learn some polite and pleasing phrases. So " Le doy 
a ustcd muchas gracias"(I give you much or many thanks), " Con 
mucho gusto" (With much pleasure), "Con mil amores " (With a 
thousand loves), "A mas ver" (Till I see you more — good-by), 

^ Mahn-tliah'nah. 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 



109 



" Cdmo esta usted " (How are you ?), " Muy bien, gracias " (Very 
well, thanks), and " Perdone usted " (Pardon me), were added to his 
Growing vocabulary. He still continued to study the Spanish gram- 
mar and phrase-book by himself. 

The class under the lead of their generous friends began their 
journey by going to Washington. Here Arthur found especial de- 




THE WHITE HOUSE, REAR ENTRANCE. 

light in the models of the dwellings of the Cliff-dwellers in the Smith- 
sonian Institution. 

After visiting the monument, good Mrs. Green took the class to 
see the little cottage of Marcia Burns, in the half-ruined grounds of 
the old Van Ness mansion, near the monument and the White House. 
Marcia Burns was the daughter of David Burns, a rugged old Scotch- 
man, who was compelled by the Government to sell a part of his great 
plantation for the site of the Capitol. He disliked to part with his 
land, and once said to Washington, who was commissioned to buy it, 
" Who would you have been, had you not married the Widow Custis.-*" 

The cottage is small and old, but picturesque. Here Thomas 



no 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Moore, the poet, was entertained in Jefferson's days. It was about 
this time that Moore visited Virginia, and wrote the once famous 
ballad, " The Lake of the Dismal Swamp." Marcia Burns married, 

but died young, leaving much of 
her great fortune to the Washington 
Orphan Asylum, where her beauti- 
ful portrait may still be seen. The 
old Van Ness mansion is a poetic 
ruin. Here all the Presidents and 
statesmen of a generation used to 
be entertained, and here six head- 
less white horses are said to haunt 
the place on the return of old anni- 
versary evenings. 

The Government stopped on 
the day Marcia Burns (Van Ness) 
was buried. She sleeps in the 
Temple of Vesta, not far from the 
resting-place of the author of 
" Home, Sweet Home." 

There were two scenes in Wash- 
ington that impressed themselves 
upon the class, more than the mon- 
ument or the grand government 
offices. They were the Columbian 
Doors of the Capitol, and the inde- 
scribably beautiful effect of moon- 
light on the Capitol building. 

We give a description of the 
Columbian Doors, from the pen of a Washington lady who has made 
them a study : — 




iho-rur. f^i^' ' 

i-oo- i*^ '-^^^ 



THE COLUMBIAX DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 



I 1 



THE ROGERS' BRONZE DOORS, i 

In the city of Rome, in the year 1858, an American sculptor, by name 
Randolph Rogers, designed and modelled the famous bronze doors placed in 
the main central entrance to the Capitol, which is a strong point of interest to 
all intelligent sight-seers in Washington. 

Few finer or more enduring examples of the sculptor's art are to be found 
in any country, delineating, as it does, the life of the great discoverer to whom 
ue, as a people, owe so much. 




\TIOX.\I- LIBRAKV. 



^ By permission " Youtii's Companion.'' 
8 



114 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



The doors are seventeen feet high, nine feet wide, and weigh twenty 
thousand pounds. They were designed when the sculptor was about thirty- 
three years of age, and after the execution of some of his most famous works. 
For these models he was paid eight thousand dollars, and the casting of the 
metal in 1861 by F. Von Miiller, at Munich, cost seventeen thousand dollars. 

The door in its entirety, 
as represented in the illus- 
tration, pleases the eye at 
once by the harmony of its 
dimensions and the beauty 
and skill with which the 
panels are worked out. Of 
a rich golden brown, it 
stands, sombre and unique, 
a silent historian of the 
most striking events in the 
life of one of the greatest 
explorers the world has 
ever known. 

The casing, which is 
also of bronze, projects 
forward from the leaves of 
the door, and is filled with 
designs emblematic of con- 
quest and navigation. The 
statues at each corner rep- 
resent the four quarters of 
the world, — Europe, Asia, 
Africa, and America. 

Including the semicircu- 
lar picture at the top, tliere 
are nine panels in all, rep- 
resenting in alto relievo the 
most striking events in the 
career of the great naviga- 
tor, — his aspirations, perils, successes, and disappointments, all carefully and 
lovingly delineated by the hand of genius. 

Beginning on the lower left-hand side of the doors, they interest the 
spectator at once by their life-like accuracy and power of expression. The 




iHh C OlAiiMlilA.N DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 



115 



first one is entitled, " Columbus Undergoing an Exann'nation before the Council 
of Salamanca." 

This panel represents Columbus showing his plans and charts, which 
confidence was meanly taken advantage of by his judges. 




COLUMBUS PUT IN IRONS. 



The figure in the left niche is Perez, a contemporary of the discoverer. 
Henry VIJ. of England stands on the right. The projecting heads in each panel 
are those of historians of the time of Columbus, with the exception of two. 
Those at the foot of the lower panels are presumably native Indians of America. 

"The Departure of Columbus from the Convent of La Rabida" is the 
subject of the next picture above. 

Wearied with fruitless exertions, and disgusted with the duplicity oi 



Il6 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

crowned heads, Columbus is said to have left Lisbon in 1484. In the mean 
time, his wife had died, leaving one son, Diego. 

Spain was now the goal of his hopes. He was seemingly friendless, and 
as he beo-o-ed on his way, it is to be supposed that he had no money. He had 
then reached Andalusia, dispirited, though not defeated, and there, at the gates 
of an old convent in the town of Palos, he stopped to beg bread and water for 
his little son. 

Antonio de Marchena was the superior of the convent. The grandeur of 
the man who had tarried by the wayside made itself apparent during a conver- 
sation held with him ; and the ecclesiastic entered at once into correspondence 
with royalty, and used all his influence with the King and Queen in his behalf. 
In this panel, Columbus appears to be leaving the old convent in good spirits, 
buoyed up with the hope of ultimate success. 

The statue on the left is that of Cortez, conqueror of Mexico ; on th.e 
right, lady Beatrice Dc Bobadilla, in her court robes. The projecting head at 
the top is that of our own Washington Irving. Bancroft is also represented, 
elsewhere. 

At last, seven years after his appeal to the good friars of La Rabida 
Convent, Columbus obtained an audience with Queen Isabella, which is 
pictured on the next panel. 

In the niche on the left of this bronze picture is the navigator Alonzo De 
Ojeda. On the right stands Queen Isabella, with the sceptre of royalty in 
her hand. 

The Queen, who is said to have been very lovely, with fair hair and clear 
blue eyes, received him graciously, listened, was convinced by his eloquence, 
and standing up implored the blessing of Heaven upon him. 

The " Starting of Colunibus from Palos, on his first voyage," is the next 
scene. Taking leave of his son, whom the good brotherhood of La Rabida 
pledged themselves to care for and educate, Columbus is about to embark on 
his first great voyage. 

Vespucci stands at the left of this picture. He claimed to have been one 
of the discoverers of America ; but history disputes the assertion. At the right 
is Gonzales De Mcndoza, Archbishop of Toledo, at whose table Columbus 
solved the problem of standing an ^^^ on one end, by crushing the shell. 
Then comes the " First Landing of the Spanish at San Salvador." 
This is the transom panel, and occupies the semicircular sweep over the 
whole door. 

After innumerable perils, and misgivings even in his own mind, Columbus 
finally sighted land, which proved to be one of the l^ahama Islands, on which 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAJTTOL. I I9 

he joyfully landed, and in pursuance of his own intentions and the promise of 
his sovereign King and Queen, he planted the cross and proclaimed his new 
conquest, San Salvador. 

Over the picture in this panel the grand, calm face of Columbus looks out, 
yet even in its casing of bronze wears an expression of profound sadness. 
Beneath is the eagle with outspread wings, and still lower on either side are 
two female heads. 

We come now to the " First Encounter of the Discoverers with the 
Indians." 

At first the natives hid themselves, looking with distrust (as well they 
might) at these powerful white men, and the sacred symbol they planted with 
all the imposing ceremony of worship. 

Columbus himself appeared in a suit of scarlet and gold, and his followers 
had arrayed themselves with like splendor. 

The sailors at once set out on an exploring expedition. The frightened 
natives ran before them ; but by dint of brute force, and not unlikely by recourse 
to firearms, they succeeded in capturing a young Indian girl, and brought her 
in triumph to the men in command, expecting to receive their thanks for this 
cowardly deed. 

Instead of that, Columbus sternly rebuked the men, and ordered that the 
captive be set at liberty at once, which was accordingly done. 

This is one of the most forcible pictures, and tells the story at once. 
The cross shines on the heights in the distance, and the grouping is 
excellent. 

The statue in the niche at the left of this panel is that of Francisco 
Pizarro, conqueror of Ptru. Alexander VI. occupies the niche at the right. 

The next panel shows the " Triumphant Entry into Barcelona," and is 
considered the finest in the portrayal of the story. 

The whole scene wears a triumphant aspect. Columbus, richly dressed, 
is mounted on a spirited steed. Everything that can inspire a man lends 
interest to the procession. He is a conqueror who has not bought his glory 
by war and carnage. 

Following him come the dusky natives who have been willing to enter his 
train, brilliant with plumes and jewels and gold from that far new country. 
Preceding him go the courtiers and priests, with banners, music, and incense. 
His crews march in the rear, laden with palm-branches, all kinds of lovely 
birds, and tropical wonders. 

Against the blue sky floats the white banner of the Admiral, bearing the 
words, " I"or Castile and for Leon, Columbus has discovered a New World." 



120 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



On the left and right of this panel are Vasco Nunez de Balboa and King 
Ferdinand. 

In striking contrast to this brilliant pageant comes the ignominious por- 
trayal of chains and captivity, " Columbus in Chains," 

His enemies had turned the King against him, and Columbus was super- 
seded as Governor by an officer in the royal service, named Bobadilla, who 




MOUNT VERNON. 



had the audacity to send the great discoverer home in chains. His guards, 
men of power and standing, would have removed his fetters. 

" No," said Columbus, proudly, " their Majesties commanded me by letter 
to submit to whatever Bobadilla should order in their name. I will wear these 
fetters until they order them to be taken off, and I will preserve them after- 
ward as relics and memorials of the reward of my services." 

He kept his word, and the chains were buried with him. 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 



121 



The last panel, " The Death of Columbus," has for its left and right support 
the brother of Columbus, and Charles VIII , of France. 

Pinzon, a rich merchant and mariner, who aided Columbus with service 
and money, stands on the right. On the left is John II. of Portugal. 

It is an affecting picture, and calculated to teach an enduring lesson of the 
world's ingratitude. The old priest holds up the cross, and implores him to 
turn his dying eyes upon it. A friend or two weep at,his bedside. 




ALONG THE WHARVES, GEORGETOWN. 

Some good woman — of kin to him, it may be — holds upon her bosom 
tiie head that has thought so wisely. Almost a martyr at the time of 
his death, now he is held by a grateful people in equal respect with our 
own Washington. 

The one discovered a continent on which were planted the germs 
of a mighty nation. The other was the father and saviour of that nation, 
which owes its existence to the life, faith, and suffering of Christopher 
Columbus. 



122 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



A VERY STRANGE STORY.. 

Arthur hurried from place to place in Washington, as visitors wiUi 
limited time usually do. He went to Mt. Vernon, and drank milk in Washing- 
ton's old kitchen, — a long remembered refreshment amid such stately associ- 
ations. He was shown the place where General Washington threw a shilling or 




WASHINGTON S TOMB. 



a dollar or a pebble or something across the Potomac (the thing thrown 
varies with the story-teller). He of course visited the old and new tomb of 
Washington amid the singing trees. He stopped at majestic Arlington, with 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 



12 



its army of graves, whose silent procession of white marbles halts forever 
under the green trees, and heard there the sunset gun of Washington, and saw 
the flags of the city drop in the crimson twilight. He visited one grave — is 
there another like it in all the world? — where two thousand soldiers sleep. 




soldiers' cicmetkry at arlin(;ton. 



The mocking birds sung in the magnolias, and the flowers burned in the sun's 
varied rays, as though there were no such thing as sorrow on the earth. 

But how strange it is that amid grand scenes is the place of the wonder- 
story that holds the mind ! 

Arthur had heard the outline of the strange Washington legend of the Van 
Ness place, when he visited the ruin on the green Potomac marshes. 



124 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



"That old Van Ness place has a curious history," he said to the party on 
the Potomac boat. " I must go and see it again." 

" Yes," said Mrs. Green ; " there may be no truth in the ghost legend, but 
to me it seemed haunted by the spirit of something that never happened." 




KuKO S THKATKE, WHIiRE PKESIDKNT LINCOLN WAS ASSASSINATED. 



"What was that? " 

" It was intended at one time, near the end of the war, to abduct President 
Lincoln, hide him in the Van Ness cellar, and convey him across the Potomac, 
and then demand a ransom for his life. It never happened ; but the impressior» 
'-)f it is there." 



THE COLCMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPTTOL. 



125 



The next morning Arthur repaired to the Van Ness place again. He met 
an old negro, with white hair, shuffling about the grounds. 

" An' what brings you here so early, my little man? " asked the negro. 

" Did you ever see the six white horses? " asked Arthur, coming directly to 
the matter that haunted his imagination. 

" Sho, now you hab got me shure." 
The negro sank all in a heap on one 
of the picnic seats. " Did I ebber see 
dj six white horses? No, — but I 'se 
seen deni dat did. Dem horses comb 
across riber on Christmas nights, — -just 
as de clock strikes twelve, and smoke 
comes out of their necks, and the smoke 
has the faces ob the big men gone ; 
this place used to be great on Christ- 
mas days." 

" Where do the horses come from? " 

" Dey belonged to old Mayor Van 
Ness. He thought a deal ob 'em, as I '\ c 
hern tell ; and when dey returned from 
his funeral, dey all of dem drap right 
down dead. An' dey come an' listen 
for him at the doo' ebry Christmas- 
night just at de midnight cock-crowin'. 
There ! 

" I wish I could meet some one who 
had seen the horses," said Arthur. 

" Well, boy, I tell you what you do. 
You come here this ebenin' after the 
picnic, an' ole Aunt Maria will be here: 
she 's seen de horses." 

Arthur visited the site of old Ford's 
Theatre, where President Lincoln was 
shot, and the house in which the great 
commoner died. He went to the State 

Department to see the original Declaration of Independence, the first draft of 
the Constitution of the United States, and the National Seal. Towards nightfall 
he wandered down the green avenue that passes the White House, and came 
again to the picnic ground in the Van Ness yard. Here he met Aunt Maria. 




HOUSE WHERE THE PRESmENT DIED. 



126 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



" Seen 'em, yes, honey ; I has now, shure as your bawrn. Old Si, he tell ye 
about 'em dis marnin. Well, old Si, he hain't no sense of de ting at all. Dem 
horses did n't fell down ded after comin' home from de funeral. Dey all went 
out into de medders yere, an' dey all died ob broken hearts, and de riber rose 
and covered 'em. 

" Well, honey, when de day come round on which old Mayor Van Ness 
died, just at midnight, what should appear but dem six white horses.? Dey 




NEGRO QUARTERS. 



entered de yard as still as def Dem horses make no noise wid der hoofs. 
Dey 'pears to walk on de air. An' dey go round and round de great house, 
an' den dey all stop and listen, an' smoke goes out ob der necks, 'cause dey 
has n't any heads. 

" Well, honey, one night long after de mayor died, I was at dis here house, 
a-workin'. I went to bed late, and jus' as I had tooken off my black gown, 
Icavin' me all underclothcd in white, I looked out ober de Potomac, and what 
did I see but dem identical horses? I jus' felt do hair crawlin' all ober my head, 
and shouted ' Ki ! hi ! ' and I leaped down dem stairs all jus' as I was in white. 
An' I leaped ober de box-hedges, and run out into de street, and who should I 
see but de colored people comin' late from the revibal mcetin'? I shouted 
' Hants, hants ! ' wid a powerful voice ; and dey took me for one ob de gorts. 
An' dey all run like de deer, and Parson Gob he hid in de brambles, an' nebber 
come out until marnin'. Dey bclicbs dat dey saw de Van Ness gost to 
dis day." 

"Wasn't it the mist that vou saw, Aunt Maria?" 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 127 

" You go way ! You came from up Nof, an' hab an unbelievin' soul. 
Stans to reason dem horses want no mist, — though de mist do rise very curiously 
on der marshes sometimes, especially when de moon am shinin'. Mist? Wot 
put dat into your head, boy. You tinks I knows, don't ycr?" 

Aunt Maria gav^e her turban several indignant nods, and said, " Mist? 
mist? " 

The red sunset shone through the trees as Arthur left the old rose gardens. 
The Monument towered aloft nearly six hundred feet high, half in sunset light 
and half in shadow. It is the world's greatest cenotaph and the highest perma- 
nent structure in the world. It is thirty-five feet higher than the great cathedral 
of Cologne. It cost nearly a million of dollars. 

From the Columbian Doors of the Capitol the class went to 
Chicago, to see the more wonderful monuments to the faith of the 
Great Genoese. 

In Washington Arthur began his collection for his Home 
Museum. In a store where " war relics " were sold, he purchased 
many curiosities from the battle-fields. He gathered leaves and 
flowers, which he pressed, from the grounds of the old Van Ness 
Mansion, and acorns at Mt. Vernon and Arlington. 

He made a collection of Magnolia leaves from the grounds of the 
tomb of Washington at Mt. Vernon, and from the soldiers' cemetery at 
Arlington. These he kept until they were dry, and then wrote 
patriotic sentiments on them : like, " On fame's eternal camping- 
ground," " A people is known by the men they crown," " He is 
worthiest noble who ennobles himself." He also gathered leaves and 
wild-flowers from the cemetery in which rests the author of " Home, 
Sweet Home," and on the pressed leaves wrote, " Oh, give me my 
lowly thatched cottage again ! " 

Mrs. Green continued her story-telling amid these inspiring scenes. 
The class will long recall the incident that she related out of her stores 
of incidents of history, as she turned away from the Columbian doors, 
and sat down on the great stone-seats in the wild wall of the park of 
the Capitol. 



128 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE M/SS/SSVPJV. 



THE SEA OF THE DISCOVERY. 

The Bahama Sea is perhaps the most beautiful of all waters. Columbus 
beheld it and its islands with a poet's eye. 

" It only needed the singing of the nightingale," said the old mariner, " to 
make it like Andalusia in April ; " and to his mind Andalusia was the loveliest 
place on earth. In sailing among these gardens of the seas in the serene and 
transparent autumn days after the great discovery, the soul of Columbus was at 
times overwhelmed and entranced by a sense of the beauty of everything in it 
and about it. Life seemed, as it were, a spiritual vision. 

"I know not," said the discoverer, "where first to go; nor are my eyes 
ever weary of gazing on the beautiful verdure. The singing of the birds is 
such that it seems as if one would never desire to depart hence." 

He speaks in a poet's phrases of the odorous trees, and of the clouds of 
parrots whose bright wings obscured the sun. His description of the sea and 
its gardens are full of glowing and sympathetic colorings, and all things to him 
had a spiritual meaning. 

On announcing his discovery on his return, he breaks forth into the follow- 
ing highly poetic exhortation: "Let processions be formed, let festivals be 
held, let lauds be sung. Let Christ rejoice on earth ! " 

Columbus was a student of the Greek and Latin poets, and of the poetry of 
the Hebrew Scriptures. The visions of Isaiah were familiar to him, and he 
thought that Isaiah himself at one time appeared to him in a vision. He loved 
Nature. To him the outer world was a garment of the Invisible; and it was 
before his great soul had suffered disappointment that he saw the sun-flooded 
waters of the Bahama Sea and the purple splendors of the Antilles. 

There is scarcely an adjective in the picturesque report of Columbus 
in regard to this sea and these islands that is not now as appropriate and fit- 
ting as in the days when its glowing words delighted Isabella, four hundred 
years ago. 

I recently passed from the sea of Watling's Island, the probable " San Sal- 
vador," to the point of Cuba discovered on the 28th of October, 1492, and to 
the coast of Haiti, the Hispaniola of Columbus, and the scene of the first settle- 
ment in the New World. I had studied the descriptions of Columbus, and 
almost every hour of the voyage brought them to mind like so many pictures. 

Watling's Island was probably the first landfall of Columbus, and the scene 
of the dramatic events of the elevation of the cross, the singing of the Te 
Dcum, and the unfurling of the banner of the double crowns of Leon and 
Castilo on the red nKirning of October 12, 1492. 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 131 

The San Salvador of the old maps, or Cat Island, a place now of some four 
thousand inhabitants, was not really the scene of Columbus's landing. 

Watling's Island lies far out in the sea. It is cooled by waving palms, and 
is full of singing birds. It has a tall lighthouse-tower, painted white, which 
rises nobly over the water. Its light can be seen nearly twenty miles. As one 
sees it, one recalls the fact that no friendly light except the night fagots of the 
Indians guided the eye of Columbus. 

Watling's Island has a population of less than seven hundred souls, and is 
not often visited by large steamers. 

I secured some fine specimens of " Sargasso," or gulf-weed, in passing 
through this sea, one of which I bottled in salt-water. 

Over these waters continually drift fields of this peculiar seaweed. It is of 
a bright yellow color; it shines brilliantly in the sun, and at a distance presents 
a scene of dazzling splendor. The " berries,'" which sailors say are poisonous 
to certain kinds of fish, are very salt. The weed seems always to move west 
before the trade-winds. 

Over these fields of shining drift, land birds came singing to the ships of the 
adventurers; and on one of the matted beds a land-crab appeared, — a sure 
indication of a near shore. 

The crews of Columbus feared to enter the Sargasso Sea. They had been 
told that in sailing west they would come to a sea of monsters, and they feared 
that these ocean meadows might cover hidden foes and perils. 

The peculiar beauty of the Bahama Sea is its clearness and deep purple 
color. This dark purple color is said to be the result of the " shadow of deep 
waters," though whether this is a scientific view I do not know. Under a 
cloudless sky the sea is luminous purple. 

A cloud shadow changes this royal hue into emerald. One gazes down 
into deeps unknown, and sees the pairs of dolphins as clearly as the white- 
winged birds overhead. One's eye follows the flying-fishes as clearly when 
they go down as when they dart into the open air. One here dreams of coral 
gardens, of sea nymphs, and recalls the ancient poets' conceptions of Oceanus 
and Neptune. All fancies seem possible to the creative imagination here. 

On the islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, or the Columbian Seas, 
grow the most abundant cocoanut groves in the world. The trees are graceful 
and lofty, and as a rule are slanted by the winds. They bear a solid burden 
of fruit. 

" I have counted from forty to fifty cocoanuts on a single tree ! " I said to 
an officer of my steamer, in surprise. 

" I have counted a hundred," was his answer. 



132 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

It seems unaccountable that so slender a trunk can hold aloft in the air 
such a weight of fruit. 

The nuts are not only numerous on a single palm, but of great size. A 
single nut often yields a pitcher of cocoanut water, or two goblets, as we might 
say. The palms of all the islands must be as fruitful to-day as when the first 
voyagers saw them, 

Columbus speaks of flocks of parrots that " darkened the sun." Such 
flocks do not appear now; but in every port of the Antilles there is a parrot 
market. The natives love their parrots, and the cool trees and drinking-stands 
of the parrot market make a popular place of resort. 

As a rule, the birds are not confined in cages. They are left to climb about 
on the booths in which cocoanut water and cool drinks are sold. The people 
extend their hands to them, and the birds walk into them for the sake of gifts, 
caresses, and admiration. 

Women kiss these parrots, and hold their heads close to their lips when 
talking to them. The birds are usually jealous and ungrateful, and have but 
little to commend them but their art of begging and their beauty. 

Nearly all cities in Latin America have statues to Colon, or Columbus. 
One of the most beautiful of these is in the Paseo of the City of Mexico. 
These statues usually represent the great mariner as of most distinguished 
appearance ; lofty, chivalrous, poetic. 

The statue to Columbus in Nassau in the Bahamas is quite a different con- 
ception. We find in it the sturdy and traditional English tar. It is what 
Columbus might have been had he been born an Englishman. As England 
herself has been in effect transported to Nassau, New Providence, so has art 
here been made to take on her type and expression. 

The popular figure of Columbus as he stood at San Salvador on the morn- 
ing of the 1 2th of October, 1492, as it appears in Spanish prints, may here 
everywhere be found. It is a wholly different figure and face from the English 
statue. 

The glory of the Bahama Sea is the night. A sudden hush falls upon the 
purple serenity; the sunset flames, and the day is done. The roof of heaven 
seems low, and the stars come out like silver suns. 

One does not need to look upward to see the stars, but down. The heavens 
arc below as well as above; the sky is in the sea. 

The shadowy forms of pairs of dolphins pass under the transparent waters 
almost as distinctly as by day. The atmosphere, sky and sea all blend as one 
world. 

Amid such unimagined brilliancy and splendor the soul becomes a revela- 



THE COLUMBIAN DOORS OF THE CAPITOL. 1 33 

tion to herself in the consciousness of beauty-worship, and thought takes 
wings. 

One recalls the pictures that Columbus gives of the expansion of his own 
soul. One here feels a longing to attain larger knowledge and all that is best 
in life, and wonders what new discoveries may await the spiritual faculties in 
wider horizons than these. 

Wherever he may go, the tourist will ever return in memory to the Sea of 
the Great Discovery. It is the paradise of the Ocean World, the temple gate of 
the West. 

A GRAND THANKSGIVING. 

That was a great Thanksgiving when, in the early spring of 1493, Colum- 
bus returned from his first voyage of discovery to Palos, and hastened to meet 
the Spanish sovereigns at Barcelona. Columbus was a man of faith. " God 
made me the messenger of the new heavens and the new earth," he said in his 
old age, " and told me where to find them." It was this faith that inspired 
him to weigh the earth, and to travel the unknown seas. 

Palos was full of excitement as the banner of the cross and crowns of 
Columbus rose above the wave, and streamed into the harbor. The bells rung. 
On landing, Columbus and his crew went to the principal church, accompanied 
by the whole population, and offered up solemn thanksgivings for the success 
of the expedition. 

Columbus hastened to Barcelona to meet the Court. His journey was a 
march of triumph. 

It was the middle of April, the month of nightingales and flowers. Colum- 
bus entered the city amid music, bells, and shouts of triumph. Ferdinand and 
Isabella, seated under a superb canopy, received him as a viceroy rather than 
an admiral, and requested him to relate to them the history of his voyage. He 
did so, surrounded by the Indians whom he had brought with him, with their 
gay plumes, and offerings of tropic birds and fruits. 

As he ended his wonderful narrative, there arose a burst of music, and 
bore away to heaven the thoughts of the sovereigns and nobles and people, 
already thrilled and melted by the most marvellous tale ever told of human 
achievement. 

It was the chapel-choir of Isabella. 

" We praise Thee, O God ; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord ; all the 
earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting."' 

The majestic Latin hymn swept on, until it reached the subhme words: — 



134 ZIGZAG JOURA'EYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" Holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of the majesty 
of thy glory ! " 

The great audience was filled with ecstatic devotion. It was, perhaps, the 
most happy moment of Columbus's life, — this first thanksgiving for the new 
world. 

The two stories awakened such an interest in the young peoples' 
minds, both in the Fair and Ocean World of the Antilles, that the way 
to Chicago was full of joyous hope and anticipation. Nothing so 
makes life happy as bright prospects, and in such prospects the class 
lived during the rest of the journey to Jackson Park at the Columbian 
Fair, and to the tomb of Columbus at Havana, by way of the great 
Mississippi Valley and the Mexican Gulf. 

In Washington the party had been introduced to several persons 
who were interested in the great World's Fair. Among them a com- 
missioner from Jamaica. He accompanied the party from their hoteU 
on their last visit to the Capitol, and listened with deep interest to 
Mrs, Green's well-prepared incident. 

As they sat on the stone seats near the Washington statue, in 
front of the Capitol, Arthur said to the Jamaican commissioner: — 

" You live in the Antilles. How does the Sea of Discovery appear 
to-day .f* " 

The answer was very intelligent. The commissioner loved the 
beauty of the Bahama Sea, 



CHAPTER IX. 




CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WORLD'S FAIR. 
The Wonders of 1893. — The Story of Black Partridge. — Dark Days of Old. 

[HICAGO is the head of the great Mississippi Valley. 
Situated on the Lake though she is, she yet wears 
the crown of that vast empire that the Father of 
Waters leads from the crystal lands of the Red 
River of the North to the territory of the Red 
River of the South and to the sunny Gulf whose 
shores are the tropics. One of the missionary fathers of the old days 
of Earliest America is said to have seen a vision of a populous city 
in the sky when his canoe touched the shores of Lake Michigan, 
where now the most progressive city in the world lifts her steeples in 
the air. It would not seem strange that a pioneer should have such 
a vision. 

The city arose as under the wand of enchantment. Here came 
La Salle, and vanished. Here lived and fought the tribes of the 
mini, and passed away; their plumes disappearing in the sunset as 
they set out toward the Mississippi after they had signed the Treaty 
of Chicago, — a scene worthy of a painter, and one that should have 
representation at the Great Fair. In i<Si2 Chicago, or Fort Dearborn, 
was a place of slaughter. 

But a village was founded, where the larks used to quiver in the 
air, enraptured with song; where the star-grass grew, and the rain- 
plover prophesied. The world seemed to seek tliat village by a 



1-^6 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



r" 



strange and intuitive gravitation. The village became a town, the 

town a rapid city, and the wonder grew. The waves of fire rolled 

over Lake Michigan, but the city rose again. 

She glimmers to-day over the inland ocean, the Queen of the 

West, and invites to her Aladdin palaces and marts and bazars 

the world. She has 
joined the Lakes with 
the Mississippi, and 
made far Tampa her 
port of South America. 
Her park system covers 
thirty miles ; and over 
these Art is planting the 
statues of heroes in one 
long procession. 



r 




■<? 







FIRST HOUSE IN CHICAGO. 



The Spanish Class 
stopped at the Auditorium ; and they made their first visit to Lincoln 
Park, the home park of the city, and here took their first broad view 
of the great inland sea. 

At the entrance of the Park is the grand bronze statue of Lincoln, 
which stands in a serious but hospitable attitude on a semicircular 
jDlatform of state. Near it is the severe but beautiful statue of La 
Salle ; and beyond it, on a gray stone arch, the equestrian statue of 
General Grant. 

The Park is full of trees, beautiful gardens, and cool drives ; but 
its glory is the view of Lake Michigan. The pearl-green waters look 
cheerless and monotonous at times ; but they always excite a sense 
of vastncss and power. To see the lake when it turns purple as 
robed for the sunset, or crimson as the flaming disk of the sun dis- 
appears, or silver under the rising moon, which here is a night sun, 
is an event for an eternal memory. 

Arthur thought little of the statues, the gardens, or the great sea. 




WARASH AVENITK. CHICAGO, 1870. 



CHICAGO AXD THE WORLD'S GREAT FAIR. 1 39 

He did not even talk of the famous Indian group which holds the 
eye of most young people. He hurried his parents and the class away 
to the " Zoo," as the Zoological Gardens were called. 

" I want to see the bears," he said. 

" But the bears are not historical," said his sister. 

"Yes, yes, they are. The bears are all that is left of old America." 

Europe has but one famous bear-pit, — that at Berne, — but the 
picturesque bear-pits in American cities are many. The bear-pits 
in Chicago are very interesting; and all children are likely to hurry 
towards them as soon as they enter the Park. 

" Stand back ! " said a very careful old gentleman, as the party 
stood looking at the playful bears. " The little girl lost her life in 
that way." 

Who " the little girl " was they never knew ; but one of the assist- 
ants at the Zoo told them a wonderful story of a little girl who fell 
into the bear-pit, and was carried around in the mouth of one of the 
bears, and was rescued by a newsboy. 

Jackson Park, the scene of the Great World's Fair, comprises 
some six hundred acres, and is full of beautiful water-wa3's. There 
the buildings of the exhibition were rising like a new Troy, — wonderful 
structures that seemed to be filled with the spirit of the progress of 
the world. Hither the world will come and go ; and the event will end 
the progress of the nineteenth century, which has been the grand 
march of the nations. May the twentieth century bring eternal 
brotherhood and peace ! 

It has been said that the "first white man of Chicago was a negro." 
The first settler was a slave from the West Indies. Marquette came 
to the Chicago River in a dying condition. The history of Fort Dear- 
born and the Kinzie family are full of thrilling episodes. 

From the high towers of the Columbian buildings what will the 
tourist see } As surprising a spectacle surely as was seen from the 
Eifcl tower of Paris, if not one as old and grand. He will see America. 



I40 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The art of the whole may riot equal the Paris Expositions, — art is 
the ripe fruit of what is old ; but in progress, enterprise, and science 
it will surpass any like exhibition ever held in the world. Here the 
States of the Union, and the Republics and empires of the world will 
build a great city of concord and peace. 

The Administration Building, two hundred and fifty feet square, 
will be the seat of a congress where all men may meet as brothers 
and discuss the progress of mankind as a brotherhood. The twelve 
great buildings on the lagoon will rise like the palaces of Venice, and 
around them will cluster the homes of the assembled nations. On 
one hand spreads the great London and Paris of the West, and on 
the other the boundless lake. The buildings will present every form 
of grace and beauty ; and the water park will give an expression to 
the scene unlike any other exposition of the kind ever held in the 
world. 

Here for the first time the old nations will meet South America, 
Central America, and Mexico. The South American Republics have 
met the opportunity with liberality and intelligence. Their build- 
ings will be costly, beautiful, and representative. Here, too, for the 
first time will be seen the progressive enterprises of women of all 
lands. 

Electricity and steam will here unfold their wonders. Art here 
may be less luxurious than in the European exhibitions of the past ; 
but it will be American, unique, and new, and will wear the face of 
the future. 

The success of the event is assured. The world will meet as it 
has never before met, — the nations will make one city on the shores 
of Lake Michigan. There will come the crusader of peace, and the 
captains of industry will part at last with warmer hearts and closer 
ties of brotherhood. 

At Chicago the class caught the spirit, and felt the pulse of the 
West. Everything here seemed to be upon the march. Men and 




o 

» 

•A 

< 

O 

o 
o 



CHICAGO AA'D THE WORLirs iiA'EAT FAIR. 1 43 

women lived in what they were doing. Progress, Hke a bow, spanned 
the city, the land, and the sea. 

" I would tire of all this activity," said one of the class to one of the 
Auxiliary Committee of the fair. 

"In Chicago we live two years in one," was the answer; "and 
that is the best life that demands all our energies. Chicago works; 
other cities play. People with a progressive purpose all love Chicago." 

There is truth in the remarks, and in a brief sentence that 
followed, — 

" Chicago does ! " 

Arthur collected old books and pamphlets from the street book- 
stalls in Chicago for his museum. He secured a pass for the Expo- 
sition grounds, and found many curious things to bring away as 
souvenirs. 

" Well, Arthur," asked Mrs. Green on his return from relic-hunt- 
ing, " what is the most wonderful thing that the people will see at 
the Fair when it opens in May, 1893 } " 

" Ask me questions," said Arthur, " and I will tell you." He al- 
ways liked to engage his mother in guessing talks. 

" The Illinois State Building, which is to cost nearly a million, 
and which looks like the Capitol at Washington ? " asked Mrs. Green, 
who enjoyed these talks which took the form of a puzzle. 

" No, — not that." 

" The Woman's Building, with its roof gardens ? This was designed 
by Sophia G. Hayden, a Boston girl of the Institute of Technology, 
who secured the first prize of one thousand dollars offered for such a 
design. That ought to appeal to American pride." 

"No, — not that." 

" The Horticultural Building, which is to be a new Crystal 
Palace ? " 

" No," said Arthur. " Ask again." 

" The great War Ship, where the Navy is to make its exhibit? " 



144 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" No, mother." 

" The Art Palace, with Winged Victory rising over the lagoon ? " 

" No, again." 

"Machinery Hall, which is to cost $1,200,000, and represent the 
triumphs of the scientific mind of the world ? " 

" No ; that is grand, but not that." 

" The beautiful Administration Dome, the gem of all the lagoon 
palaces ? " . • - 

" No ; that is beautiful, but not that." 

" The Electrical Building, with its floor area of twenty-seven 
acres t 

" No, no ! " 

" The Liberal Arts Building, with a floor area oi forty acres? " 

" No, no." 

" The great Aquaria } " 

" No, mother." 

" Then, my dear boy, I will have to cease questioning you. To 
me the most wonderful developments of the Fair are the facts that 
Mexico has appropriated $750,000, and Japan $500,000 for their build- 
ings. These are new nations in historical progress, and they have 
exceeded the old." Mrs, Green paused. 

" Oh, I know now," she continued. " The lagoons are to illumine 
under the water, and they will glow like fire. The Fair City will be 
like Venice illuminated. Was it the electric canals or waters of which 
you were thinking ? " 

" No, wrong again, mother." 

" Not Mexico's Palace of the Aztecs, nor Ecuador's Temple of the 
Sun .? " 

" No — I will tell you, mother : it is just Chicago.^'' 

"Well, Arthur, I think that you are right. My wonder grows at 
all I see. Seventy years ago Chicago was ' Cobweb Castle,' and now 
it is to be the Congress of the World. Who would have dreamed of 










^,^'|J 



'4^] 




CHICAGO AND THE WORLD'S GREAT FAIR. 1 47 

such a city and such achievements in the dark days that followed the 
Massacre of 1812?" Mrs. Green continued: "The principal residence 
in Chicago for many years was that of the Kinzies. The family were 
friendly to the Indians; and among their Indian visitors were Shau- 
bena, Black Partridge, and Sagaunash, a half-breed. These chiefs 
were true friends to John Kinzie and his family. 

" Of these noble redmen, all of whom are worthy of monuments 
in the art of the Great Exposition, Black Partridge had really a 
Roman heroism and character. At the beginning of the Indian hos- 
tilities he came to the commanding officer of the post and said, — 

" ' Father, I have come to deliver up the medal I wear. It was 
given to me by Americans. But the young men of my race are re- 
solved on war against you. I cannot restrain them, and honor forbids 
that I should wear the medal any longer.' 

" The Kinzies were warned of their danger, and attempted to leave 
the post in a boat. They were detained on the river, and at last com- 
pelled to return to their home. The troops were ordered to march 
away, and abandon the post, but were surprised and slaughtered by the 
Indians when but a little way from their abandoned defences. This 
surprise and its dreadful work is known as the Massacre of Chicago." 

Mrs. Helm, a step-daughter of Mr. Kinzie, wrote a very graphic 
narrative of the scenes of those tragic days. We produce a part of it 
here, — the attempt of the troops and people to escape under the friendly 
escort of the Miamis, and the attack of the hostile Pottowattamies. 

THE MASSACRE OF CHICAGO. 

After we had left the bank, the firing became general. The Miamis fled 
at the outset. Their chief rode up to the Pottowattamies and said, — 

" You have deceived the Americans and us. You have done a bad action, 
and," brandishing his tomahawk, " I will be the first of a party of Americans to 
return and punish your treachery." So saying, he galloped after his compan- 
ions, who were now scouring across the prairies. 

The troops behaved most gallantly. They were but a handful, but they 



148 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

seemed resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. Our horses pranced 
and bounded, and could hardly be restrained as the balls whistled among them. 
I drew off a little, and gazed upon my husband and father, who were yet un- 
harmed. I felt that my hour was come, and endeavored to forget those I loved, 
and prepare myself for my approaching fate. 

While I was thus engaged, the surgeon. Dr. Van Voorhes, came up. He 
was badly wounded. His horse had been shot under him, and he had received 
a ball in his leg. Every muscle of his face was quivering with the agony of 
terror. He said to me, "Do you think they will take our lives? I am badly 
wounded, but I think not mortally. Perhaps we might purchase our lives by 
promising them a large reward. Do you think there is any chance? " 

" Dr. Van Voorhes," said I, " do not let us waste the few moments that yet 
remain to us in such vain hopes. Our fate is inevitable. In a few moments we 
must appear before the bar of God. Let us make what preparation is yet in 
our power." 

" Oh ! I cannot die," exclaimed he, " I am not fit to die, — if I had but a 
sl)ort time to prepare — death is awful ! " 

I pointed to Ensign Ronan, who though mortally wounded and nearly 
down, was still fighting with desperation on one knee. 

" Look at that man," said I ; "at least he dies like a soldier." 

" Yes," replied the unfortunate man, with a convulsive gasp, " but he has no 
terrors of the future, — he is an unbeliever ! " 

At this moment a young Indian raised his tomahawk at me. By springing 
aside, I avoided the blow which was intended for my skull, but which alighted 
on my shoulder. I seized him around the neck, and while exerting my utmost 
efforts to get possession of his scalping-knife, I was dragged from his grasp by 
another and an older Indian. 

The latter bore me struggling and resisting toward the river. Notwith- 
standing the rapidity with which I was hurried along, I recognized as I passed 
them the lifeless remains of the unfortunate surgeon. Some murderous toma- 
hawk had stretched him upon the very spot where I had last seen him. 

I was immediately plunged into the water and held with a forcible hand, 
notwithstanding my resistance. I soon perceived, however, that the object of 
my captor was not to drown me, for he held me firmly in such a position as to 
place my head above water. This reassured mc, and regarding him attentivel\-, 
I soon recognized, in spite of the paint with which he was disguised, the Black 
Partridge. 

When the firing had nearly subsided, my preserver bore me from the 
water and conducted me up the sand-banks. It was a burning August 



CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WORLD'S FAIR. 151 

morning, and walking through the sand in my drenched condition was inex- 
pressibly painful and fatiguing. I stooped and took off my shoes to free them 
from the sand with which they were nearly filled, when a squaw seized and 
carried them off, and I was obliged to proceed without them. 

When we had gained the prairie, I was met by my father, who told me 
that my husband was safe and but slightly wounded. They led me gently 
back toward the Chicago River, along the southern bank of which was the Pot- 
towattamie encampment. At one time I was placed upon a horse without a 
saddle ; but finding the motion insupportable, I sprang off. Supported partly 
by my kind conductor. Black Partridge, and partly by another Indian, Pee-so- 
tum, who held dangling in his hand a scalp, which by the black ribbon around 
the queue I recognized as that of Captain Wells, I dragged my fainting steps 
to one of the wigwams. 

The wife of Wau-bee-nee-mah, a chief from the Illinois River, was stand- 
ing near, and seeing my exhausted condition she seized a kettle, dipped up 
some water from a stream that flowed near,^ threw into it some maple sugar, 
and stirring it up with her hand gave it to me to drink. This act of kindness 
in the midst of so many horrors touched me most sensibly, but my attention 
was soon diverted to other objects. 

The fort had become a scene of plunder to such as remained after the 
troops marched out. The cattle had been shot down as they ran at large, and 
lay dead or dying around. This work of butchery had commenced just as we 
were leaving the fort. I well remember a remark of Ensign Ronan, as the firing 
went on. " Such," turning to m.e, " is to be our fate, — to be shot down like 
brutes ! " 

" Well, sir," said the commanding officer who overheard him, " are you 
afraid?" 

" No," replied the high-spirited young man, " I can march up to the enemy 
where you dare not show your face;" and his subsequent gallant behavior 
showed this to be no idle boast. 

As the noise of the firing grew gradually less, and the stragglers from the 
victorious party came dropping in, I received confirmation of what my father 
had hurriedly communicated in our rencontre on the lake shore; namely, that 
the whites had surrendered after the loss of about two thirds of their number. 
They had stipulated, through the interpreter, Peresh Leclerc, for the preserva- 
tion of their lives, and those of the remaining women and children, and for 
their delivery at some of the British posts, unless ransomed by traders in the 

' Just by the present State Street Market. 



1^2 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Indian country. It appears that the wounded prisoners were not considered as 
included in the stipulation, and a horrible scene ensued upon their being 
brought into camp. 

An old squaw, infuriated by the loss of friends, or excited by the 
sanguinary scenes around her, seemed possessed by a demoniac ferocity. She 
seized a stable fork and assaulted one miserable victim, who lay groaning 
and writhing in the agony of his wounds, aggravated by the scorching beams 
of the sun. With a delicacy of feeling scarcely to have been expected under 
such circumstances, Wau-bee-nee-mah stretched a mat across two poles, 
between me and this dreadful scene. I was thus spared in some degree a 
view of its horrors, although I could not entirely close my ears to the cries 
of the sufferer. The following night five more of the wounded prisoners were 
tomahawked. 

The Americans, after their first attack by the Indians, charged upon 
those who had concealed themselves in a sort of ravine, intervening between 
the sand-banks and the prairie. The latter gathered themselves into a body, 
and after some hard fighting, in which the number of whites had become 
reduced to twenty-eight, this little band succeeded in breaking through the 
enemy, and gaining a rising ground, not far from the Oak Woods. The contest 
now seemed hopeless, and Lieutenant Helm sent Peresh Leclerc, a half-breed boy 
in the service of Mr. Kinzie, who had accompanied the detachment and fought 
manfully on their side, to propose terms of capitulation. It was stipulated 
that the lives of all the survivors should be spared, and a ransom permitted 
as soon as practicable. 

But in the mean time a horrible scene had been enacted. One young 
savage, climbing into the baggage-wagon containing the children of the white 
families, twelve in number, tomahawked the children of the entire group. 
This was during the engagement near the Sand-hills. When Captain Wells, 
who was fighting near, beheld it, he exclaimed, — 

"Is that their game, butchering the women and children? Then I will 
kill too! " 

So saying, he turned his horse's head, and started for the Indian camp, 
near the fort, where had been left their squaws and children. 

Several Indians pursued him as he galloped along. He laid himself flat 
on the neck of his horse, loading and firing in that position, as he would 
occasionally turn on his pursuers. At length ihcir balls took effect, killing 
his horse, and severely wounding himself At this moment he was met by 
Winncmcg and Wau-ban-see, who endeavored to save him from the savages 
who had now overtaken him. As they supported him along, after having 







-^ 



tTf H 



CHICAGO AND THE WORLD'S GREAT FAIR. 1 55 

disengaged him from his horse, he received his death-blow from another 
Indian, Pee-so-tum, who stabbed him in the back. 

The heroic resolution of one of the soldier's wives deserves to be recorded. 
She was a Mrs. Corbin, and had from the first expressed the determination 
never to fall into the hands of the savages, believing that their prisoners were 
always subjected to tortures worse than death. 

When therefore a party came upon her to make her a prisoner, she 
fought with desperation, refusing to surrender, although assured, by signs, of 
safety and kind treatment, and literally suffered herself to be cut to pieces 
rather than become their captive. 

There was a Sergeant Holt, who early in the engagement received a 
ball in the neck. Finding himself badly wounded, he gave his sword to his 
wife, who was on horseback with him, telling her to defend herself. He then 
made for the lake, to keep out of the way of the balls. Mrs. Holt rode a very 
fine horse, which the Indians were desirous of possessing ; and they therefore 
attacked her, in hopes of dismounting her. 

They fought only with the butt-ends of their guns, for their object was 
not to kill her. She hacked and hewed at their pieces as they were thrust 
against her, now on this side, now on that. Finally she broke loose from them, 
and dashed out into the prairie. The Indians pursued her, shouting and 
laughing, and now and then calling out, — 

" The brave woman ! do not hurt her ! " 

At length they overtook her again, and while she was engaged with two 
or three in front, one succeeded in seizing her by the neck behind, and drag- 
ging her, although a large and powerful woman, from her horse. Notwith- 
standing that their guns had been so hacked and injured, and even themselves 
cut severely, they seemed to regard her only with admiration. They took her 
to a trader on the Illinois River, by whom she was restored to her friends, 
after having received every kindness during her captivity. 

Those of the family of Mr. Kinzie who had remained in the boat near 
the mouth of the river were carefully guarded by Kee-po-tah and another 
Indian. They had seen the smoke, then the blaze ; and immediately after 
the report of the first tremendous discharge sounded in their ears. Then all 
was confusion. They realized nothing until they saw an Indian come towards 
them from the battle-ground, leading a horse on which sat a lady, apparently 
wounded. 

"That is Mrs. Heald," cried Mrs. Kinzie. "That Indian will kill her. 
Run, Chandonnai," to one of Mr. Kinzie's clerks, " take the mule that is tied 
there, and offer it to him to release her." 



156 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Her captor by this time was in the act of disengaging her bonnet from 
her head, in order to scalp her. Chandonnai ran up, offered the mule as a 
ransom, with the promise of ten bottles of whiskey as soon as they should 
reach his village. The latter was a strong temptation. 

" But," said the Indian, "she is badly wounded, — she will die. Will you 
give me the whiskey at all events?" 

Chandonnai promised that he would, and the bargain was concluded. 
The savage placed the lady's bonnet on his own head, and after an ineffectual 
effort on the part of some squaws to rob her of her shoes and stockings, she 
was brought on board the boat, where she lay moaning with pain from the 
many bullet-wounds she had received in both arms. 

The horse she had ridden was a fine spirited animal, and, being desirous 
of possessing themselves of it uninjured, the Indians had aimed their shots so 
as to disable the rider without injuring her steed- 
She had not lain long in the boat, when a young Indian of savage aspect 
was seen approaching. A buffalo robe was hastily drawn over Mrs. Heald, and 
she was admonished to suppress all sound of complaint, as she valued her life. 

The heroic woman remained perfectly silent, while the savage drew near. 
He had a pistol in his hand, which he rested on the side of the boat, while with 
a fearful scowl he looked pryingly around. Black Jim, one of the servants, 
who stood in tne bow of the boat, seized an axe that lay near, and signed to 
him that if he shot, he would cleave his skull ; telling him that the boat con- 
tained only the family of Shaw-nee-aw-kee. Upon this the Indian retired. It 
afterward appeared that the object of his search was Mr. Burnett, a trader from 
St. Joseph's, with whom he had some account to settle. 

When the boat was at length permitted to return to the mansion of Mr. 
Kinzie, and Mrs. Heald was removed to the house, it became necessary to dress 
her wounds. 

Mr. K. applied to an old chief who stood by, and who, like most of his 
tribe, possessed some skill in surgery, to extract a ball from the arm of the 
sufferer. 

"No, father," replied he, "I cannot do it, — It makes me sick here," plac- 
ing his hand on his heart. 

Mr. Kinzie then performed the operation himself with his penknife. 

At their own mansion the family of Mr. Kinzie were closely guarded by 
their Indian friends, whose intention it was to carry them to Detroit for secu- 
rity. The rest of the prisoners remained at the wigwams of their captors. 

The following morning, the work of plunder being completed, the Indians 
set fire to the fort. A very equitable distribution of the finery appeared to have 




H 

a 
S 

a; 

> 

o 

o 

» 






CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WORLD'S FAIR. 1 59 

been made ; and shawls, ribbons, and feathers fluttered about in all directions. 
The ludicrous appearance of one young fellow who had arrayed himself in a 
muslin gown and the bonnet of one of the ladies, would, under other circum- 
stances, have afforded matter of amusement. 

Black Partridge, Wau-ban-see, and Kee-po-tah, with two other Indians, 
having established themsches in the porch of the building as sentinels, to pro- 
tect the family from any evil the young men might be excited to commit, all 
remained tranquil for a short space after the conflagration. 

Very soon, however, a party of Indians from the Wabash made their 
appearance. These were, decidedly, the most hostile and implacable of all the 
tribes of the Pottowattamies. 

Being more remote, they had shared less than some of their brethren in 
the kindness of Mr. Kinzie and his family, and consequently their sentiments of 
regard for them were less powerful. 

Runners had been sent to the villages to apprise them of the intended 
evacuation of the post, as well as of the plan of the Indians to attack the 
troops. 

Thirsting to participate in such a scene, they hurried on ; and great was 
their mortification, on arriving at the river Aux Plaiiies, to meet with a party of 
their friends having with them their chief Nee-scot-nee-meg, badly wounded, 
and to learn that the battle was over, the spoils divided, and the scalps all 
taken. 

On arriving at Chicago they blackened their faces, and proceeded towards 
the dwelling of Mr. Kinzie. 

From his station on the piazza Black Partridge had watched their ap- 
proach, and his fears were particularly awakened for the safety of Mrs. Helm 
(Mr. Kinzie's step-daughter), who had recently come to the post, and was per- 
sonally unknown to the more remote Indians. By his advice she was made to 
assume the ordinary dress of a French woman of the country; nameh', a short 
gown and petticoat, with a blue cotton handkerchief wrapped around her head. 
In this disguise she was conducted by Black Partridge to the house of Ouil- 
mette, a Frenchman with a half-breed wife, who formed a part of the establish- 
ment of Mr. Kinzie, and whose dwelling was close at hand. 

It so happened that the Indians came first to this house, in their search 
for prisoners. As they approached, the inmates, fearful that the fair com- 
plexion and general appearance of Mrs. Helm might betray her for an Ameri- 
can, raised a large feather-bed and placed her under the edge of it, upon the 
bedstead, with her face to the wall. Mrs. Bisson, the sister of Ouilmcttc's wife, 
then seated herself with her sewing upon the front of the bed. 



l6o ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

It was a hot day in August, and the feverish excitement of fear and agita- 
tion, together with her position, which was nearly suffocating, became so intol- 
erable that Mrs. Helm at length entreated to be released and given up to the 
Indians. 

" I can but die," said she ; " let them put an end to my misery at once." 

Mrs. Bisson replied, " Your death would be the destruction of us all, for 
Black Partridge has resolved that if one drop of blood of your family is spilled, 
he will take the Hves of all concerned in it, even his nearest friends ; and if the 
work of murder commences, there will be no end of it, so long as there remains 
one white person or half-breed in the country." 

This expostulation nerved Mrs. Helm with fresh resolution. 

The Indians entered, and she could occasionally see them from her 
hiding-place gliding about, and stealthily inspecting every part of the room, 
though without making any ostensible search, until, apparently satisfied that 
there was no one concealed, they left the house. 

All this time Mrs. Bisson had kept her seat upon the side of the bed, 
calmly sorting and arranging the patchwork of the quilt on which she was 
engaged, and preserving an appearance of the utmost tranquillity, although she 
knew not but that the next moment she might receive a tomahawk in her 
brain. 

From Ouilmette's house the party of Indians proceeded to the dwelling of 
Mr. Kinzie. They entered the parlor, in which the family were assembled with 
their faithful protectors, and seated themselves upon the floor in silence. 

Black Partridge perceived from their moody and revengeful looks what 
was passing in their minds, but he dared not remonstrate with them, fie only 
observed in a low tone to Wau-ban-see, — 

" We have endeavored to save our friends, but it is in vain, — nothing will 
save them now." 

At this moment a friendly whoop was heard from a party of new-comers 
on the opposite bank of the river. Black Partridge sprang to meet their 
leader, as the canoes in which they had hastily embarked touched the bank 
near the house. 

" Who are you ? " demanded he. 

" A man. Who are you ? " 

"A man like yourself; but tell m^zvho yow are," — meaning, "Tell me your 
disposition, and which side you are for." 

" I am the Sau-ga-nash ! " 

"Then make all speed to the house, — your friend is in danger, and you 
alone can save him." 



"©r^ 




v..» .-.:——.' u 



CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WORLD'S FAIR. 1 63 

Billy Caldwell ^ — for it was he — entered the parlor with a calm step, 
and without a trace of agitation in his manner. He deliberately took ofif his 
accoutrements, and placed them with his rifle behind the door; then saluted 
the hostile savages. 

" How now, my friends ! A good day to you. I was told there were 
"enemies here, but I am glad to find only friends. Why have you blackened 
your faces ? Is it that you are mourning for the friends you have lost in 
battle," purposely misunderstanding this token of evil designs, " or is it 
that you are fasting? If so, ask our friend here, and he will give you to eat. 
He is the Indians' friend, and never yet refused them what they had need of" 

Thus taken by surprise, the savages were ashamed to acknowledge their 
bloody purpose. They therefore said modestly that they came to beg of 
their friends some white cotton in which to wrap their dead, before interring 
them. This was given to them with some other presents, and they took their 
departure peaceably from the premises. 

1 Billy Caldwell was a half-breed, and a chief of the nation. In his reply, "I am a Sau-ga- 
nash," or Englishman, he designed to convey, "I am a white man." Had he said, "I am a 
Pottowattamie," it would have been interpreted to mean, " I belong to my nation, and am 
prepared to go all lengths with them." 




CHAPTER X. 

THE LAND OF LINCOLN. 

To St. Louis by the Way of Peoria and Springfield. 

T Peoria the class stopped to visit Starved Rock, 
where was the old French fort of St. Louis, and 
where the last of the Illini were surrounded by the 
Lake tribes, and perished. Poetry and legendary lore 
here pictures a dramatic scene. The Lake tribes 
came down from the north, and <"be Illini of the 
prairies of flowers took their stand against them on the Rock of 
the Illinois. Here, with abundant stores, and the cool water sparkling 
beneath them, the prairie tribes thought that they were secure against 
all enemies. But their stores became spent, and the canoes of their 
foes cut off their supply of water, and they starved, and perished from 
thirst. In their last fevers they could look down on the cool water of 
the river which they could not reach, — a tragedy that might well excite 
the imagination of a poet or an artist. Our country has many great 
stories that art has not told ; and this is one of them. 

A land of corn-fields and wheat-fields, of oaks and streams, and we 
are amid scenes which tlie name of Lincoln will ever make immortal. 
The spires of Springfield rise in the clear, sunny air; the whistle 
blows, and we are in the capital of the rich State of IlHnois. 

The class hurried away to see a plain house on a plain street, 
which was once the home of the great President; then to the State 
House, to wonder at its unsightly situation and magnificence ; and 
then to that silent city without the city, where is no legislation, but 



THE LAND OF LINCOLN. 1 67 

the tomb of the commoner to whom the world has given a place 
among undying names. 

The air was a dream of sunshine, and the corn-fields a golden 
glory, as the class passed beyond the quiet, prosperous city limits. 
The wide land of plenty and prosperity opened before them, and 
seemed to nurture happiness everywhere. One could hardly dream 
here that there had ever been a war. 

Oak Ridge Cemetery, where the peaceful heart of Lincoln rests 
amid the monumental scenes of war, originally consisted of a few 
acres that were called a "graveyard." It was enclosed by a fence by 
the growing city ; and here families dug graves where they pleased, 
for the land was free. 

The young city grew, and with it the city of the dead among the 
oaks by its side. After the death of Lincoln and the great national 
funeral, it passed under the control of the Lincoln Monument Asso- 
ciation, having been selected as the place of a monument to the martyr 
President that should endure for generations. 

The Cemetery is about one and a half miles north from the new 
State House. 

The class approached the Mausoleum with a feeling of awe, and 
stood silent for a time beneath the sunny shaft and dark groups of 
statues. 

" The shoeless boy who came to Indiana, and lived in a house 
without windows or doors, could hardly have dreamed of a resting- 
place like this," said Mr. Green to a soldier guarding the monument. 

" No," answered the guard, who knew the history of the Lincoln 
family well. " I often think of Lincoln's mother as I gaze up to the 
shaft, and enter the chambers. Lincoln once said in Washington, 
' It was she that placed me here,' and again, ' All that I am or all that 
I ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother.' Her name was Nancy 
Hanks Lincoln, a simple Baptist pioneer, whose chief comfort was her 
religion and her ability to sing hymns. She died when Abraham was 



i68 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



some ten years old, leaving two children. When she knew that she 
was to die, she selected the place for her grave under some great trees, 




w^^mi 



( v^' "1:^ 













THE LINCOLN' MONUMENT, SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 

and it was there that the boy Lincoln brought Elder Elkins all the 
way from Kentucky to preach her funeral sermon. 

" Come," he continued, " come with me." He led the class into 
the monument, and pointed to a stone. " Read that ! " 



THE LAND OF LIXCOLN. 1 69 

The class read : — 

ABRAHAMO. LINCOLNIO 

REGION. FOEDERAT. AMERIC. PRAESIDI. II. 

HVNC. EX. SERVl. TVLLI AGGERE. LAPIDEM 

OVO. VTRIVSOVE. 

LIBERTATIS ADSERTORIS FORTISS 

MEMORIA. CONIVNCATVR 

GIVES. ROMAN! 

D. 

A. MDCCCLXV 

" Who was Servius Tullius } " asked Arthur of the guard. 

" He was the sixth king of Rome." 

" And why is this stone here.'* " 

" It was sent as a present to Abraham Lincohi by distinguished 
citizens of Rome, on his second election as President. It was found 
in the cellar of the White House. It is thought that President Lin- 
coln was so overcome by the compliment of being compared to so 
great a king that he modestly hid it there. But the stone was 
prophecy." 

"How?" 

" Lincoln's life and that of the Roman king were parallels. Both 
were born of very poor parents ; both emancipated the slaves of their 
country; both were defenders of the principles of equal rights, and 
both were assassinated, and fell martyrs to liberty." 

" When did this king live } " 

" Nearly six hundred years before the birth of Christ." 

" And this stone was from the Roman wall that he erected.'* " 

"Yes." 

" Guard } " 

" Do you think that Lincoln ever thought that all of his life might 
be like that of Servius Tullius ? " 

" I have thought so. That may be the reason why he wished to 
hide the stone. He used to say to his friends that he would not sur- 
vive the war; that his own life would end with his work. He said to 



170 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



one : ' I feel a presentiment that I shall not outlast the war. When it 
is over, my work will be done ; ' and to another he said : ' I may not 
see the end ; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated.' So you see 
that he read his destiny." 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



When the party turned away from the stone coffin, Memorial Hall, 
and the sun-flooded cemetery, it was to talk of Lincoln, and to seek 
among the sons and daughters of his old neighbors incidents of his 
wonderful life. 



THE LAND OF LINCOLN. 171 

Lincoln shrank from the terrible duty of war. He hated the 
shedding of blood, and was happy in the thought of retirement and 
peace. It is said that just before the assassination he said to his wife, 
" When the cares of State are over, I will go to Palestine." 

The late James Franklin Fitts some years ago contributed to the 
"Youth's Companion" a story which shows Lincoln's heart. It is 
vivid and dramatic in form, and written with evident feeling ; and we 
copy it here. It is a story worthy to live. 

THE MESSAGE OF LIFE. 

Twenty years ago I was one of many witnesses of a scene that has left 
upon my memory an impress perhaps deeper than that of any other occurrence 
of that stirring time. The sequel of the story, which I learned some months 
afterwards, is narrated here with the principal event; and both together 
deserve a larger audience than any that has yet heard them, because they 
touch the heart and arouse those feelings of sympathy which make the whole 
world kin. 

It was in February, 1865. I was a staff-officer of a division of the Union 
Army stationed about Winchester, Virginia; and military operations being 
then practically over in that region, I had succeeded in getting leave of 
absence for twenty days. The time was short enough, at best, for one who had 
been long absent from family and friends, and two days were to be consumed 
each way in getting to and from my Northern home. I lost no time in making 
the first stage of my journey, which was a brief one, from Winchester to 
Harper's Ferry, by rail. 

Reaching the latter place after dark, I found, to my great disappointment, 
that the last train for the day for Baltimore had left an hour before, and that 
the next train would start at five o'clock on the following morning. 

There was no difficulty in finding a lodging, poor as it was ; but there was 
trouble in getting out of it as early as I wished. Previous experience warned 
me that the state of agreeable excitement and anticipation that possessed me 
that night was not favorable to sleep; and fearing a heavy slumber in the early 
hours of the morning, when I should at last lose myself, I gave a small 
reminder to the negro servant, and received his solemn promise that he would 
arouse me at four o'clock. 

The result was exactly what I feared. In a most exasperating condition of 



172 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

wakefulness I lay until it seemed certain that the night must be half gone; but 
an examination of my watch by the light of a match showed that the hour 
was but a few minutes past ten. Is there anything more annoying than the 
ineffectual effort to sleep, when Nature is fairly crying out for sleep? Every 
noise of the night came to me with the most painful distinctness, — the barking 
of a doo-, the tramp of a body of soldiers as they went their rounds relieving 
o-uard, the laugh and song of some boisterous revellers, and even the musical 
ripple of the Shenandoah River just below me. 

The long and vivid story of what had happened to me since last leaving 
home passed through my thoughts, and only added to their excitement. All 
the wise remedies for insomnia that occurred to me were successively tried, and 
found wanting. Again my watch was consulted ; it marked half-past eleven. 
Twice after this I heard the guard relieved ; so that it must have been later 
than two o'clock when sleep visited my weary eyes. A rude disturbance at 
my door awakened me, and I became dimly conscious of the voice of the 
negro outside. 

"What is it?" I cried testily. "What do you wake me up for at this 
time of night?" 

" 'Deed, sah, Ise sorry ; 'pon my honah, I is, sah ! but de train hab done 
gone dese two hours." 

It was even so. Broad daylight — seven o'clock in the morning — the train 
gone, and no chance to get out of Harper's Ferry till twelve more precious 
hours of my leave had passed, — this was the unpleasant situation to which I 
awoke upon that dreary February morning. To make the best of it, is the 
true philosophy of life; in fact, it is folly to do anything else; but human 
nature will assert itself, and I grumbled all to myself that morning, as most of 
my readers would have done in my place. 

Breakfast over, I strolled around the queer old place, not to see its sights, 
for they were very familiar to me, but merely to while away the time. Of all 
the places in this land where man has made his habitation, none is more 
remarkable from its natural situation than this. 

Here the Potomac and the Shenandoah unite and break through the lofty 
barrier of the Blue Ridge ; and Harper's Ferry, located at the point of their 
confluence, is environed by lofty mountains, up the steep side of one of which 
the village seems to clamber and cling for support. From the lofty top of 
Maryland Heights, opposite, a wonderful natural panorama may be seen ; and 
of this view Thomas Jefferson wrote that it was worth a journey from Europe 
to see it. But if you are set down in Harper's Ferry, at the base of these 
great hills, your view is cramped and circumscribed in every direction. 



THE LAND OF LINCOLN. 



173 



I went back to the hotel after an hour's stroll, wrote some letters, read all 
the newspapers I could find about the place, and shortly after eleven o'clock 
went out again. This time my ear was greeted with the music of a band, 
playing a slow piarch. Several soldiers were walking briskly past, and I 
inquired of them if there was to be a military funeral. 

" No, sir," one of them replied, — " not exactly. It is an execution. Two 
deserters from one of the artillery regiments here are to be shot up on Bolivar 
Heights. Here they come ! " 

The solemn strains of the music were heard near at hand, and the cortege 
moved into the street where we stood, and wound slowly up the hill. First 
came the band; then General Stevenson, the military commandant of the post, 
and his staff; then the guard, preceding and following an ambulance, in 
which were the condemned men. A whole regiment followed, marching by 
platoons, with reversed arms, making in the whole a spectacle than which 
nothing can be more solemn. 

Close behind it came, as it seemed to me, the entire population of Harper's 
Ferry; a motley crowd of several thousand, embracing soldiers off duty, camp- 
followers, negroes, and what not. It was a raw, damp day, not a ray of sun- 
light had yet penetrated the thick clouds, and under foot was a thin coating of 
snow. Nature seemed in sympathy with the misery of the occasion. 

The spot selected for the dreadful scene was rather more than a mile up 
the Heights, where a high ridge of ground formed a barrier for bullets that 
might miss their mark. Arrived here, the troops were formed in two large 
squares of one rank each, one square within the other, with an open face 
toward the ridge. Two graves had been dug near this ridge, and a coffin was 
just in rear of each grave. Twenty paces in front was the firiag-party of 
six files, under a lieutenant, at ordered arms ; the general and his staff sat on 
their horses near the centre. 

Outside the outer square, the great crowd of spectators stood in perfect 
silence. The condemned men had been brouglit from the ambulance, and each 
one sat on his coffin, with his open grave before him. 

They were very different in their aspect. One, a man of more than forty 
years, showed hardly a trace of feeling in his rugged face; but the other was a 
mere lad, of scarcely twenty, who gazed about him with a wild, restless look, as 
if he could not yet understand that he was about to endure the terrible punish- 
ment of his offence. 

The proceedings of the court-martial were read, reciting the charges against 
these men, their trial, conviction, and sentence; and then the order of General 
Sheridan approving the sentence, " to be shot to death with musketry," and 



174 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

directing it to be carried into effect at twelve o'clock noon of this day. The 
whole scene was passing immediately before my eyes; for a staff-uniform will 
pass its wearer almost anywhere in the army, and I had passed the guards and 
entered the inner square. 

A chaplain knelt by the condemned men and prayed fervently, whispered a 
few words in the ear of each, wrung their hands, and retired. Two soldiers 
stepped forward with handkerchiefs to bind the eyes of the sufferers, and I 
heard the officer of the firing-party give the command in a low tone : " Atten- 
tion ! — shoulder — arms ! " 

I looked at my watch ; it was a minute past twelve. The crowd outside had 
been so perfectly silent that a flutter and disturbance running through it at this 
instant fixed everybody's attention. My heart gave a great jump as I saw a 
mounted orderly urging his horse through the crowd, and waving a yellow 
envelope over his head. 

The squares opened for him, and he rode in and handed the envelope 
to the general. Those who were permitted to see that despatch read the 
following : — , ; 

Washington, D. C, Feb. 23, 1865. 
Gen. Job Stevenson, Harper'' s Ferry. 

Deserters reprieved till further orders. Stop the execution. 

A. Lincoln. 

The older of the two men had so thoroughly resigned himself to his fate 
that he seemed unable now to realize that he was saved, and he looked around 
him in a dazed, bewildered way. 

Not so the other; he seemed for the first time to recover his consciousness. 
He clasped his hands together, and burst into tears. As there was no military 
execution after this at Harper's Ferry, I have no doubt that the sentence of 
both was finally commuted. 

Powerfully as my feelings had been stirred by this scene, I still suspected 
that the despatch had in fact arrived before the cortege left Harper's Ferry, 
and that all that happened afterward was planned and intended as a terrible 
lesson to these culprits. 

That afternoon I visited General Stevenson at his headquarters, and after 
introducing myself, and referring to the morning's scene on Bolivar Heights, 
I ventured frankly to state my suspicions, and ask if they were not well- 
founded. 

"Not at all," he instantly replied. "The men would have been dead had 
that despatch reached me two minutes later." 



THE LAND OF LIXCOLX. 1 77 

"Were you not expecting a reprieve, general? " 

" I had some reason to expect it last night; but as it did not come, and as 
the line was reported down between here and Baltimore this morning, I had 
given it up. Still, in order to give the fellows every possible chance for their 
lives, I left a mounted orderly at the telegraph office, with orders to ride at a 
gallop if a message came for me from Washington. It is well I did! — the 
precaution saved their lives." 

How^ the despatch came to Harper's Ferry must be told in the words of the 
man who got it through. 

THE TELEGRAPHER'S STORY. 

On the morning of the 24th of February, 1865, I was busy at my work in 
the Baltimore Telegraph Office, sending and receiving messages. At half-past 
ten o'clock, — for I had occasion to mark the hour, — the signal C — A — L, 
several times repeated, caused me to throw all else aside, and attend to it. 

That was the telegraphic cipher of the War Department; and telegraphers, 
in those days, had instructions to put that service above all others. A message 
was quickly ticked off from the President to the commanding officer at Har- 
per's Ferry, reprieving two deserters who were to be shot at noon. The mes- 
sage was dated the day before, but had in some way been detained or delayed 
between the Department and the W'ashington office. 

A few words to the Baltimore office, which accompanied the despatch, ex- 
plained that it had " stuck " at Baltimore ; that an officer direct from the Presi- 
dent was waiting at the Washington office, anxious to hear that it had reached 
Harper's Ferry, and that Baltimore must send it on instantly. 

Baltimore would have been very glad to comply; but the line to Harper's 
Ferry had been interrupted since daylight, — nothing whatever had passed. So 
1 explained to Washington. 

The reply came back before my fingers had left the instrument. " You 
niHst get it through. Do it, some way, for Mr. Lincoln. He is very anxious ; 
has just sent another messenger to us." 

I called the office-superintendent to my table, and repeated these despatches 
to jiim. He looked at the clock. 

" Almost eleven," he said. " I see just one chance, — a very slight one. 
Send it to New York ; ask them to get it to Wheeling, and then it may get 
through by Cumberland and Martinsburg. Stick to "em, and do what you 
can." 

By this time I had become thoroughly aroused in the business, and I set to 

12 



178 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSTPPL 

work with a will. The despatch with the explanation went to New York, — and 
promptly came the reply that it was hopeless; the wires were crowded, and 
nothing could be done till late in the afternoon, if then. 

I responded just as Washington had replied to me. It must be done ; it is 
a case of life and death ; do it for Mr. Lincoln's sake, who is v^ery anxious 
about it. And I added for myself, by way of emphasis, " For God's sake, let 's 
save these poor fellows ! " 

And I got the New York people thoroughly aroused as I was myself. The 
answer came back, "Will do what we can." 

It was now ten minutes past eleven. In ten minutes more I heard from 
New York that the despatch had got as far as Buftalo, and could not go direct 
to Wheeling; it must go on to Chicago. 

Inquiries from Washington were repeated every five minutes, and I sent 
what had reached me. 

Half-past eleven the despatch was at Chicago, and they were working their 
best to get it to Wheeling. 

Something was the matter ; the Wheeling office did not answer. 

The next five minutes passed without a word; then — huzza ! — New York 
says the despatch has reached Wheeling, and the operator there says he can 
get it through to Harper's Ferry in time. 

At this point the news stopped. New York could learn nothing further for 
mc, after several efi'orts, and I could only send to Washington that I hoped it 
was all right, but could not be sure. 

Later in the day the line was working again to Harper's Ferry, and then I 
learned that the despatch had reached the office there at ten minutes before 
twelve, and that it was brought to the place of execution just in time. 

Arthur, who had collected magnolia leaves at the tomb of Wash- 
ington for his Honie Museum, found oak leaves and acorns at Oak 
Ridge for the same purpose. He pressed the leaves, and wrote under 
them some of the noblest sentiments of the martyr president. 

He found in Springfield an old leather-covered English Reader, 
such as had been used in one of the schools that Lincoln attended. 
This he read with deep interest, and added it to his numerous treas- 
ures. Lincoln once said that the English Reader was the best book 
that was ever compiled. 



CHAPTER XL 



ST. LOUIS, THE CITY OF THE MOUNDS AND PARKS. 




N old Indian days, when Missouri was a part of Lou- 
isiana, the town of St. Louis was known as the coun- 
try of the Mounds. Here were the ancient temples 
of the red races, and here the council grounds of 
the vanishing tribes. After the city became a com- 
mercial centre, and historic races had disappeared, 
it kept the old traditions of the mysterious past by changing the 
council grounds of the Mounds into world-famous parks, hi this 
beautiful city of the Mississippi, man may live in long summers of 
fairy lands. In its park areas it surpasses all other cities in the 
United States, with the possible exception of Philadelphia. Thqre is 
Benton Park, of the grottoes and lakelets ; Carondolet Park, with its 
cool drives and fine views; Forest Park, of thirteen hundred and 
seventy-one acres, where one may roam through more than one thou- 
sand acres of forest trees, or rest near a Moorish pagoda, and listen to 
patriotic music of all lands ; Lafayette Park, of thirty acres, in the 
beautiful part of the city, where the statue of Thomas H. Benton 
towers over an inscription of the most prophetic words that ever fell 
from his lips; "There is the east; there is India!" (in reference to 
the Pacific territory); Tower Grove Park, of two hundred and seventy- 
six acres, a classic place of lawns and statues, where one may meet 
statues of Shakespeare and Columbus and Haron Von Humboldt ; 
there are Hyde Park, Lyon Park, OTuller Park, Gravois Park, and 
the Boulevards and gardens without number. The long stretches of 



i8o 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



land that overlook the great river are all a park. The Mounds have 
gone, but the prairie flowers still bloom there, and the river rolls below 
as calmly and majestically as of old towards the purple Gulf sun- 
shine and palms. But the delight of the young people of the roman- 
tic city is the Fair 
Grounds, where one 
finds one's self in 
the animal kingdom 
of all lands. We 
will speak of it 
soon. 

St. Louis stands 
in the centre of the 
Mississippi Valley, 
and is the Northern 
port city of the 
Father of Waters. 
It was founded by 
the French in the 
last days of the 
Monarchy. In 1764 
Pierre Auguste La- 
clede established a 
trading-post here, at 

a point of the city now known as old Market Square, near the 
Cathedral. At this time the great river was the dividing-line between 
the French and the English possessions. The site was then a part of 
Northern Louisiana. He placed Auguste and Pierre Chouteau in 
charge of the post colony. The descendants of the Chouteaus (pro- 
nounced Shoe-toe) are among the most influential and patriotic 
families of the city. 

The post colony named their town St. Louis, in honor of Louis 




LEARNING THE RIVER 



ST. LOUIS. 



iSl 



XV., the King of France. In 1768 the post was occupied by Spanish 
troops, but it reverted to France in 1800. In 1803 the entire territory 
of Louisiana was pur- 
chased by the United 
States, and the Stars 
and Stripes were lifted 
ovci the red sod towers 
of the fur-traders of St. 
Louis. The town at 
that time contained 
only about a thousand 
inhabitants, and con- 
sisted largely of one 
hundred and eighty 
houses, " built of logs 
set on end." 

St. Louis now leaped 
into life, and became 
the leader of the pioneer 
enterprises of the great 
Mississippi Valley. John Jacob Astor made here a trading-house, 
which gained for him much of his early wealth. The first railways 
west of the Mississippi started here ; the first schools and newspapers. 
Then Thomas H. Benton arose to fame, and lent to the city the lustre 
of his prophetic genius. He saw the future of the great empire that 
lay beyond the Mississippi, and gave his heart and mind to its develop- 
ment. To-day a half-million inhabitants cross and recross the colossal 
bridge that spans the great river, and the city turns its easy wealth 
into beauty and works of art and beneficence. 

The first visit made by our Tourists in the city of the ancient 
Mounds was to Lafayette Park. General Lafayette visited St. Louis 
on his return to America, and the people here have always held his 




LAFAYETTE. 



l82 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



memory in filial and affectionate regard. His statue adorns one of 
the shaded avenues of the Park, and so the heart of the city will ever 
perpetuate his effigy and his name. 

The Park is refined and elegant in its outlines, and has an old 
French atmosphere about it that harmonizes well with its name. 

The central figure of the tasteful avenues here is the statue of 
Thomas H. Benton, the great Missouri Senator, and the author of 
" Thirty Years' View." The once famous speeches of this man are 

almost forgotten, but long the 
inspiration of a poetic proph- 
ecy will live ! Bishop Berke- 
ley said, " Westward the 
course of empire takes its 
way," and the line made him 
immortal. Benton, in plead- 
ing for the occupation of the 
great Northwest, said, point- 
ing to the Pacific : " There is 
the east ; there is India ! '* 
The parts of the Puget Sea 
that now are opening to the 
Orient will attest how genuine was the inspiration of that utterance. 
" A little well written is immortality," said the poet Halleck. A little 
well spoken has the same crown ; an ounce of a diamond is worth a 
ton of glass ; the greatest truths of life find expression in a few choice 
words. 

The statue is majestic, and its seriousness contrasts with the light- 
ness and gayety of the surrounding scenes, — with the airy trees, the 
music pagodas, the smiling hedges and bright flowers. The face has 
the prophet's mood. It is worth a journey across the continent to sit 
down in its presence, and here to dream of ultimate America, as he 
saw it, and as we may more clearly see it to-day. In Benton's day 




A LIGHT-KEEPER. 



ST. LOUIS. 183 



people went from the Mississippi to the Pacific by the .Oregon Trail. 
To-day the empire between the Mississippi and the Pacific is becom- 
ing the greater United States, where the seat of political power is to 
be. The grand march began while yet Benton waved his hand. 

The Fair Grounds of St. Louis arc amono- the wonders of America. 
Here is an amphitheatre capable of sheltering a hundred thousand 
people. A thousand trotters have been found here at a single Fair, 
and the Annual Fair is the occasion of the State s gala-days. 

The air is cool with sifted sunshine, and blazes with flowers. The 
increasing products of the stall are brought here year after year. But 
to young Missouri the exhibits and races are minor attractions. The 
little feet as they turn the turnstile hurry towards the Zoo. 

The Zoo of St. Louis } One loves to remember it. We never 
have seen such respectable-looking bears in any other pits, — great, fat, 
ainiablc-\ooV\VL^^ creatures ! We cannot think that they would harm 
any one if they were let loose. They seem so glad to see company, 
too. Arthur went there once on a rainy day, when they seemed lone- 
some, and one of them danced and rolled over and over with delight as 
he greeted them. The animals here are mercifully kept and treated. 
They are not cramped for room. They all seem friendly, — the ele- 
phant, the sea-lions, and all. In fact, everything appears to be happy 
here, — the birds in the trees, the monkeys in the cages, the great com- 
panies of children, and even the flowers. The beautifully-shaded 
grounds seem to be endless. One is sorry as the afternoon hours 
grow short, and the post-Mississippi sun blazes behind the trees, to 
turn again the turnstile, and to face the city. St. Louis is rich, but 
she believes that life was given for something better than money- 
making. She is a healthy city, which is natural, as she does so 
much to keep her people in the open air. We do not wonder that 
her citizens love her, and are proud of her, and guard her fame \\\\.\\ 
jealous care. 

If the young St. Louisan may go to the animal world at one suburb, 



1 84 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



he may find the trees and plants of Bible lands at another. The Shaw- 
Gardens are famous everywhere, and they are as free as the air of the 
prairie. They were given to the city by Mr. Henry Shaw, a retired 
millionaire, who spent some thirty years of his life in their develop- 
ment. They are the Kew Gardens, the Jardin des Plantes, of America. 
Almost every species of trees and plants may be found here in natural 
groups and associations. Here we may find the olive-tree, the cam- 
phor-tree, and almond and the cinchona ; here the rose of Sharon 
and the lily of the valley. The glory of the city is the river, and the 
brido^e that crowns the river. One should see the brids^e from the 
river at night. In autumn evenings the streets are frequently illumi- 
nated with many- 
colored lights, 
but the bridge is 
an arch of splen- 
dor on every 
night of the year. 
Next to the 
Brooklyn Bridge, 
it is the most stu- 
pendous structure of its kind in the country. It is an event in one's 
history to cross it, and one leaves it for the last time wdth regretful 
looks, and yet with gratitude for the lesson that they had learned 
here, and that every one learns here, that a true and liberal public 
spirit may make a city doubly dear to the hearts and homes of its 
inhabitants. 

The Union Depot of St. Louis, like that of other great Western 
cities, presents a strange spectacle on the departure of trains. The 
tracks and car-yards are of themselves a little city. In the great 
waiting-rooms are to be seen families from all parts of the civilized 
world : emigrants from all the countries of Europe ; Chinese, Negroes ; 
elegant tourists on their way to Mexico; invalids going to the Hot 




A TOW. 



sr. LOUIS. 



185 



Springs of Arkansas ; poor women with great families of children ; 
men with tickets for Texas ; newsboys, — wealth, poverty, gay spirits 
and misery ; happy faces, anxious faces, disappointed faces ; oh, what 
a dissolving view of humanity it is, and how much of it is pitiable ! 
One's heart aches at the sight of the emigrant mothers and children, 
and wishes that some of the easy flow of wealth and luxury in the 
palace cars could make them happy for a single hour in their anxiety 
and necessity. One is shocked at the indifference with which the gay 
world passes them by. These women have come here, not for them- 
selves, but for their children ; and these children are to be the future 
electors of presidents. We often look upon these mothers as heroines, 
and these children as national trusts. 

" You are having a hard time with your children," said a veiled 
lady to one of these mothers in the waiting-room. " I pity you : 
here is a dollar for you. You have greater cause to pity me : I 
have lost mine." 

She gave the distressed woman a look of sisterly sympathy, and 
followed her coachman, and vanished into the night. We hope that 
her sleep was sweet, and that there is a better world than this for such 
as she. 




CHAPTER XII. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 





M 


^ 



HE Mississippi! Father of Waters! The Indians 
called it the Great River, and, including the Mis- 
souri, it is the longest river in the world. 

It rises among the clear lakes of Minnesota, near 
the sources of the long Red River of the North. 
With the Canal that connects the Lakes with its 
waters, it makes an island of half the United States. 
It is 2986 miles long, or to the source of the Missouri 4500 miles. 
It drains an area of 1,226,600 square miles, an empire that once 
teemed with a crowded population of high intelligence, that long ago 
vanished, and that now is being repeopled from all civilized lands, — 
an empire where France came and went, having her romantic seat 
at Kaskaskia, and its vice-royal city at New Orleans. 

A boat may ride on the river 2200 miles, or with the Missouri 
3000 or more miles. 

The river and its branches form the boundaries of one fourth of 
the States. Its waters, like the heart and its arteries, touches all the 
central life of the States. The Mississippi Valley is the heart of the 
great Republic. 

Its banks is a procession of cities : St. Paul, Galena, Keokuk, 
Ouincy, St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans. 
Ijy canal it touches Chicago and the Lakes, Canada and the East. 
It^ heart-beat is the pulse of America. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPL 



189 



John Law dreamed of it in 171 7, and formed the Mississippi 
Scheme that bankrupted his countrymen. Though the great valley 
did not prove an Eldorado, it has more than fulfilled the largest 
visions of the imaginative speculator. 

The class had planned to go from St. Louis to New Orleans by 
water, and thence to Tampa, Florida, by rail, and to Havana, by one 
of the Plant Line 







VIEW OX THE RIVER. 



of steamers. 

It was a clear, 
bright early au- 
tumn day as the 
boat which they 
first took glided 
away from the 
stupendous 
bridge that spans 
the Mississippi 

at St. Louis. The bridge looked like an arch in the j '"^I^-'^?/?-^,^ 
heavens as it disappeared. In warm, serene weather ^-^ 
boat-travel on the Mississippi is a delight. He misses his 
journey who makes a pleasure tour to New Orleans from St. Louis 
by rail. 

Plantations, towns, cities, battlefields, companies of happy negroes 
everywhere ; fields white with cotton, planters' houses, log-cabins, and 
cool trees. One has leisure for story-telling as the boat glides along, 
and Mrs. Green was called upon to be the entertainer on the sunny 
decks. 

The lower deck seemed swarming with colored people, light-hearted 
and happy ; and Mrs. Green, with a heart full of benevolence, thought 
that she saw in that little province of Africa a calling to do missionary 
work. So, on one sunny, lazy afternoon, she went down to these 
populous quarters, and sat down to question some of the boys as to 



1 90 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



their religious knowledge and spiritual progress. Arthur went with 
her, and listened with the deepest interest to the results of her efforts. 
" Can you sing ? " began Mrs. Green, putting her question to a 
bright-eyed colored boy. 

" Yes, missus ; I can sing all night at the 
camp-meetin'." 

This was encourasinor. 

" Can you sing, missus ? " 

" Yes, some ; but not as well as I used to 
do." 

" Hymns 1 " 

"Yes." 

" I sing hymns." 

"Suppose you sing one." 

" I 'd hate to sing before a white lady from 
up Nof." 

" Oh, it is not so niuch Jiow you sing as 
w^hat you sing that will please me ! " 

"Well, — I'll tell you what 'tis; you sing, 
and I '11 sinor and we'll see which will hold out 
the longest." 

Mrs. Green was persuaded to begin the 
musical contest, in order to hear the boy's 
plantation songs. 

She selected a popular and very appro- 
priate old hymn : — 




A TYPICAL OLD-TIiMER. 



' ' My brother, I wish you well ; 
My brother, I wish you well; 
When my Lord calls, I hope we all 
Will meet in the Promised Land." 



As soon as she had concluded this simple and fraternal stanza, the 
boy clasped both hands about his knees, and beo-an to rock to and fro. 



STORY-TELLIXG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. I9I 

Mis eyes sparkled with the light of one who sees victory afar, and he 



began : — 



" I '11 be there, 

I '11 be there. 
When the general roll is calling, 

I'll be there; 

I'll be there, 

I'll be there. 
When the general roll is calling, 

I'll be there. 
I hope to meet my brother there, 
When the general roll is calling; 
He used to join with me in prayer. 

Now you sing," said the boy. 
Mrs. Green continued : — 

" My sister, I wish you well ; 
My sister, I wish you well ; 
When my Lord calls, I hope we all 
Will meet in the Promised Land." 

The boy followed, — 

"I'll be there, 
I 'II be there," etc. 
" I hope to meet my sister there. 

Now you sing again." 
Mrs. Green continued : — 

" My pastor^ I wish you well ; 
My pastor, I wish you well," etc. 

The boy grinned, rocked to and fro, and continued : — 

" I '11 be there, 
I '11 be there , 
I hope to meet my pastor there," etc. 

" Now you go on," said he. 

Mrs. Green besjan to see the strans^e situation in which she was 
placed. She continued : — 

" Poor sinner, I wish you well. 
Poor sinner, I wish you well. 
When my Lord calls, I hope we all 
Will meet in the Promised Land." 



192 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



The boy's eyes glowed : 



I "11 be there, 
I '11 be there," 



and here he rolled over, singing, — 

" I hope to meet poor sinners there. 

he, he, he ! Now go on, missus." 

Arthur was laughing, and people were gathering around the two 
singers and filling the deck. 

" Who shall I sing about next ? " she asked. 

"Oh, the capt'n and mate, and the names of all the boys. My 
name is Peter, mine is. They call me Pete. Sing, ' Peter I wish 




A MISSISSIPPI LUMBER-RAFT. 



you well ; ' then get at the names of all the boys, and wish them well. 
Then put in all the names of all the people you ever knew, and wish 
them well. Then go back to Bible times. You can sing all night 
in that way. I have a song that is everlasting, — as long as one has 
breth. Want to hear it ? " 

Poor Mrs. Green ! Here were unexpected events. While in a 
state of perplexity as to what to say and how to retire, she was held 
to her seat by hearing the young Wagner begin a most haunting 
melody in which all the colored people reverently joined : — 



STORY-TELLLXG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 93 

" The heaven-l)ells are ringing, 
The heaven-bells are ringing, 

About Jerusalem. 
Oh, do you love God, my brother? 
Oh, do you love God, my brother ? 
My soul is 'bout to shine." 

This song went on and on. In the second stanza it was "my 
sister;" in the third "my father;" in the fourth, "my mother;" in the 
fifth, "my elder;" and then the refrain took up, in successive stanzas, 
the names of the singers and their friends. 

It ceased only when the boat touched at landing. 

When the boat moved off again, the boy said, " Missus, tell us 
about the captains of the Nof, — them who made us free. Did you 
know Lincoln, or John Brown, or Garretson." 

" I knew Sumner," said Mrs. Green. 

" Goody, missus, did you ? Well, tell us 'bout him." 

" I well recall the day that he was buried," said Mrs. Green. 

" Buried ? tell us about that." 

Death and burial are the most interesting events in life to the 
mind of the negro. The colored people gathered around Mrs. Green 
in intense interest. The passengers also took seats near her, and 
among them were a number of people of political reputation and 
large intelligence. 

On board the boat was a party of Mexicans who had been to St. 
Louis in the interest of gold-mines in the Sierra Madre Mountains. 
Arthur soon made the acquaintance of these men, and learned Spanish 
rapidly by keeping near them. One of them spoke English fluently, 
and related to him many stories. He described the customs of 
Mexican life to him, the old cities, and the patriots of the struggles 
of the Republic. 

One of his stories, in a descriptive narrative, greatly interested, not 
only Arthur, but the class. 

13 



194 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

A STATESMAN'S BURIAL. 

It was a mild afternoon. The blue sky was barred and flecked with hght 
clouds. There was a solemn stillness in the air that seemed in harmony with 
the universal sorrow of the hour. Everywhere people were threading the 
avenues of Mount Auburn, Cambridge, converging around the tower and the 
highest land elevation, at whose foot the grave had been made. 

The terraced side of the hill overlooking the grave gradually filled with 
people, to the number of many thousands. They stood in reverent silence, 
awaiting the last sad scene. 

Half-mast flags were seen on every hand above the hill-tops, and the tolling 
of bells was heard in all of the surrounding towns, the measured tones of 
sorrow seeming to retreat into the cloudy distances until almost imperceptible 
to the ear. 

The grave was a simple brick vault in the earth, in an open lot on the slope 
of the hill from which the cemetery derives its name. Above it a solitary oak 
stretches a single strong arm. Near are the graves of Countess Ossoli, Agassiz, 
Septimus Felton, Burlingame, and other names distinguished in statemanship, 
literature, and art. 

We could but associate the gnarled oak, that was to shade the remains in 
sunshine and shelter them in storm, with the solitary grandeur of the character 
of the departed statesman. "A great man under the shadow of defeat," said 
Mr. Sumner to a friend, on the last social evening he ever spent, " is taught 
how precious are the uses of adversity ; and as an oak-trees roots are strength- 
ened by its shadow, so all defeats in a good cause are but resting-places on the 
road to victory at last." He, indeed, had grown strong in defeat like the oak 
in its own shadow, and the resting-place of victory awaited him at last. 

At nearly sunset the bells of Cambridge announced to the waiting multi- 
tudes that the procession was approaching, passing the old historic college, 
— his alma mater, the scene of his conscientious and studious youth. 

On the side of the hill, just above the place where we were waiting, stood an 
old colored woman, holding by the hand a bright-eyed little girl. Her face 
was thin and deeply wrinkled, but calm, patient, and trustful. The child's face 
seemed to indicate more of Caucasian beauty than of African blood. As I 
caught sight of the woman's sad countenance at every casual turning of the 
head, I felt almost constrained to ask her what sorrowful history had left its 
traces there. Had she been a slave? Had her children been forced away 
from her? Had she known the bitterest experience a mother can know in 
some hut by the savannas, amid the cotton-fields or the rice-swamps? 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



195 



Presently a carriage was driven to the side of the grave. One might see 
through the glass front that it was loaded with flowers. A young lady, a 
daughter of Dr. S. G. Howe, who was to stand by the grave, as the represen- 
tative of Mr. Sumner's sister in California, alighted, and a wreath and cross 
of delicate exotics were laid on her arm. The old negro woman drew the child 
closer toward her with a trembling hand, and said, " Milly, those flowers are 
for him." 

Then came men bringing a cross of ivy and violets on a standard of pen- 
dant ferns, and set it in the centre of the lot, near the grave. I could hear a 
faint whisper amid the silence, " Those flowers are for him." 

As the sun was setting, its glory shrouded in broken masses of clouds, a 
company of officers mounted on black horses swept slowly round the hill. 
Hearts beat faster; but no one of the expectant assembly seemed to move. 
The hearse, with its guard mounted on white horses, followed. Behind it came 
the long line of coaches, in which were some of the most illustrious men of the 
nation. The procession stopped, the musicians and singers took their places, 
and the low, sweet tones o{ Integer Vitce, in tremulous measures, rose upon the 
air. It was an ode of Horace that Mr. Sumner had loved. 

As the coffin, buried in flowers and floral emblems, was removed from the 
hearse, the old slave woman's hand pointed tremblingly to it; and as it passed 
into the grave she tearfully said, " Milly, had it not been for him, you might 
have been a little slave." 

The shades of night were fast gathering as the coffin was lowered, while 
Dr. Sunderland repeated the Lord's Prayer. Cro.sses and wreaths of rarest 
flowers were thrown upon it, and among them one floral tribute of surpassing 
beauty, on which was the motto, " Do not let my Civil Rights Bill fail." An 
immense cross of lilies was placed at the head of the grave, rising like a white 
monument above the uncovered heads in the shadows. 

It was an impressive scene. Vice-President Wilson bent over the grave, 
his patriarchal form and white head conspicuous among the mourners. The 
divided statesmen had sat side by side in the Senate and fought the battle for 
freedom together for nearly a quarter of a century. Emerson was there, to 
whom the dying Senator sent his last messsage of love. Statesmen, scholars, poets, 
and philanthropists were there, in all of whose bosoms was a common sentiment. 

A hymn was sung, — Luther's majestic choral, " A mighty fortress is our 
God." The last impressive words of the hymn seemed indeed to emphasize 
the lesson of the statesman's life: — 

" The word above all earthly powers — 
No thanks to them — abideth. 



196 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The spirit and the gifts are ours 
Through Him who vvitli us sideth. 
Let goods and i<indred go, 
This mortal life also ; 
The body they may kill, — 
God's truth abideth still. 
His kingdom is forever." 

It was dark and ended. The procession and the mourning throng gone. 
The cross of HHes guarded the grave Hke a ghost, and the solitary oak 
stretches its arm above the statesman's eternal slumber. He little thought 
when battling for the right, amid the reproach of friends and the bitterest 
opposition of enemies, that his life would have an ending like this. He little 
dreamed that his grave would be made fragrant by the freshest flowers of 
Southern soil, and that the tolling of bells in Southern Charleston as well as 
in his own New England would attest the universality of the nation's grief 
In this view, few events of the present time have taught the whole nation 
a sublimer moral lesson. 

The colored people were both pleased that Mrs. Green should have 
told this story to them in the old New England way, and with the 
incidental story of Milly. 

" She talked to us as though we knew something," said one of 
them. 

"I know all about Milly," said another; "but who was Emerson 
and those other people ? " 

A STRANGE TALE. — MONTEREY. 

The city of Monterey, in the State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, is very beauti- 
ful in situation. The mountains lift their heads in fantastic forms around it; 
the San Juan, a tributary of the Rio Grande, flows by it. Its suburbs are full 
of walled gardens and orange orchards. 

The city is white, and stands upon a plain some sixteen hundred feet above 
the sea-level. As seen from a near hill on which is the ruined Bishop's Palace, 
and one of the scenes of the Battle of Monterey, it recalls the old cities of the 
Orient. It is a growing city, of less than twenty thousand inhabitants ; it is 
becoming Americanized, as arc all the Mexican cities near the American border. 
The battle of Monterey was fought on the 24th of September, 1846. The scars 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPL I 99 

of the battle may yet be seen in the hill region crowned by the Bishop's Palace, 
which is a picturesque ruin that the traveller sees wherever he may be on 
the plain. 

It is a patriotic city. It is related that when Juarez came to Monterey and 
slew the spirit of the people, he said, " Dismiss the Guard, — I am protected by 
loyal hearts," or words with this meaning. 

Monterey is rich in historic tales and legendary lore. One of the stories 
well known here is worthy of art or the drama. It relates to two brothers 
from over the border. 

These two young men were greatly attached to each other, were patriotic 
after their own view of patriotism, brave, and chivalrous. One of them was 
married, and the other single. 

They became involved in a movement for the independence of Northern 
Mexico, and joined a company of revolutionary volunteers. The insurgents 
were pursued by the Mexican national troops, and defeated near Ensalada. 
They were taken prisoners and condemned to death. 

The Mexican commanding officer after a little time changed the sentence 
against the captives, and ordered that one in five should die, and that the men 
to be executed should be drawn by lot. 

The method of lot-drawing on this occasion was dramatic and strange. 
There were to be put into a dark sack as many beans, or frijo/es, as there were 
prisoners. The condemned men, probably blindfolded, were to draw each a 
frijol from the sack. But one out of five of the hearts was black, and the 
men who should draw these black beans were to suffer the death penalty. 

It must have been an awful moment to the man who had drawn a black 
frijol when his bandage fell from his eyes, and he opened his hand and sav/ in 
it his fate. 

The two brothers were blindfolded, and drew frijol es from the dark sack. 
The single man drew a white bean, and was filled with joy at his escape from 
death ; but his brother drew a black frijol, and his joy vanished at the 
terrible disclosure. 

His love for his brother was flamed by the misfortune. " I have no wife," 
he thought; "he has. I have less to live for than he." He clasped his 
brother's hand, and exchanged the frijolcs. He showed the officer the black 
bean that he had taken from his brother, and asked to die in his stead. 

He was shot. After he fell, his body was left on the ground. In the night 
he recovered consciousness, for the wound was not mortal. He rose up, and 
attempted to escape and hide in the mountains; but was captured, and again 
shot, dying the death of a hero, having loved his brother more than himself. 



200 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The Mexican travellers had with them their wives and servants. 
The ladies made the acquaintance of the class. 

Here the class first tried the experiment of making use of their 
newly-acquired Spanish. Mr. Green the teacher and Mr. Diaz, who 
had travelled in Spanish countries, found no difficulty in being under- 
stood ; but the young ladies' efforts to understand the replies of tlie 
Mexicans afforded much amusement to Arthur, who was constantly on 
the lookout for their mistakes and confusion. 

" A que hora comemos lioy } " asked Miss Green of a bright- 
looking Mexican servant-girl. 

" No comeremos antes de las cinco, Senorita." 

Miss Green stood silent. 

"Why do you not say, What?''' asked Arthur, in a low voice. 

*' Be still, brother. I am going to try again. 

" Say Hoy ? " said Arthur, as the servant began to look inquisitive 
about the mouth. 

*' Say, ' Perdone usted — Mil gracias — no comprendo } ' " 

Miss Green and the servant remained silent, — the one thinking of 
what she should say next, and the other waiting for the question. 

" I know what she said," said Arthur. 

" You } " 

" Yes : she said that we would not dine until five o'clock." 

" Let me try again," said Miss Green. 

" Que hora es ? " 

The servant understood the question, and answered simply: — 

" Son las tres y diez minutos, Senorita." 

Miss Green stood in an attitude of profound meditation. 

" Now you know, sister," said Arthur. " Say Gracias, or the girl 
will not think you have any manners." 

" Gracias." 

The girl smiled in a bewildered way. 

" No es tarde," said Arthur. 



STORY-TELLIXG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 20I 

The servant understood, and said pleasantly, " No, Senor ; " but 
Miss Green was still in meditation. 

" What time did she say it was ? " she asked at last. 

" It is three and ten minutes." 

" I knew that she said three; but the ten minutes puzzled me. Why 
did she not say. It is ten minutes past three .f*" 

Mr. Diaz came upon the odd scene, laughing, and Miss Green 
joined in the amusement caused at her discomfiture. 

" They say that one may make any answer in Spanish countries, but 
Manana. That word has proved the ruin of all Spanish nations." 

" Manana 1 " asked Miss Green, "did we have that word in our 
lesson } " 

Miss Gray joined the company. 

'' They say that we may say anything in Spanish countries, but 
— " said Miss Green to her friend. " But — what was that word } " 

" Bananas," said Arthur. 

''Manana','' said Mr. Diaz. 

" It has proved the ruin of all Spanish nations," said Miss Green. 

" What has been the ruin of all Spanish nations .? " asked Miss 
Gray. 

" Manana',' said Miss Green. 

" It sounds well, but it must be something dreadful," said Miss 
Gray. " What does it mean ? " 

" Pardon me, but you will know before you have been many days 
in Mexico. When you ask a favor of a Mexican, implying work, he 
will answer Manana. He learned the word from the Spaniards. 
Maha7ia is a day that never arrives." 

" How strange ! " said Miss Green. 

" What is that day that never arrives in Spanish } " asked Miss 
Gray. 

" Manana,'' said Mr. Diaz. 

" Is that Monday } " 



202 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



"No." . 

" The day after ? " 

" Yes." 

" Tuesday } " 

" No, — the day after." 

" Wednesday .f* " 

" No, — the day after." 

" Thursday .? " 

" No." 

" Friday ? " 

" No," 

" Saturday } " 

- No." 

" Sunday ? " 

" No." 

" But I have named all the days of the week." 

" But the Spanish people have eight days in the week : Monday, 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and 
Manana (to-morrow, or in the morning) ; that day never comes." 




CHAPTER XIII. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI {co7itinued). 




F such charming hours as were spent on 

the lazy Mississippi steamer, the class had 

never dreamed. Mrs. Green was a lover 

of the poems of Edna Dean Proctor, 

which she regarded as possessing the 

true national spirit. " Mrs. Hemans 

caught the inspiration of English life," 

she said ; " Miss Proctor is the Mrs. 

Hemans of America, and the true 

American poet of the national life." 

Here on the river of Marquette, De 

Soto, and La Salle, she introduced to 

the young people Miss Proctor's poems that relate to the War, to 

IlHnois and the Mississippi. 

The class continued their readings on the steamer, as though they 
were at home. At one of these deck readings, Mr. Green recited 
Miss Proctor's grand poem " On the Mississippi ; " and the young 
ladies of the class, Mrs. Hemans's " Inez de Castro," the " King of 
Aragon's Lament for his Brother," and other Spanish tales in 
heroic verse. Mr. Green, the teacher, arranged a reading of the 
famous w^ar poem, " On the Shores of Tennessee," in such a w^ay as 
to have the music of the " Star-Spangled Banner " played softly 
as in the distance, by a simple boat-l^and, at the dramatic incident 
of the narrative. The Mexican \^7x\\.y told pleasant stories of tlieir 



204 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



own land ; the colored people were induced to sing, and one of them 
to play on the banjo. Every one seemed happy ; the days and nights 
were bright, and the boat drifted slowly on and on, — passed places 
famous in the history of the War when the Mississippi was a " cap- 
tive river," and left behind white cotton-fields, airy cabins, and cool 
trees. 










SHIPPING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Four hundred and twenty miles below St. Louis the boat came to 
Memphis, on the east side of the river. The city crowns a bluff some 
sixty feet above the highest tides. It is a city of sunshine and cotton, 
of half a hundred churches, and one hundred schools. In 1862 it was 
occupied by the Federal forces, who made it the base of the expedition 
that captured Vicksburg, July 4, 1863. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPL 



205 



The river between Memphis and Vicksburg is a long pathway of 
the sun through the sunlands, — a historic highway on which the flags 
of Spain, France, and England floated in their day, and where the 
Confederate flag rose and disappeared. In few places or water-ways 
does the stars and stripes mean more than here. 







VIEW OF THE RIVER NEAR VICKSBURG. 



There was an old army surgeon on board, who related incidents of 
the battle-fields. One of these little stories was particularly touching, 
and we give it here. 

ANNIE'S HAND. 

It was after the battle. Tlie full moon was rising above the horizon, 
shadowy and lustfeless in the smoky sky. The boom of the cannon was 
occasionally heard in the distance, covering the retreat of the enemy; but the 
battle-field itself was still, very still. 



2o6 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

I wandered over the field doing a chaplain's duty, and searching for two 
missing boys of the regiment. One of these, whom we all loved, was named 
Charlie. 

I found him at last. He was wounded. As the light of the lantern fell on 
the young face, I saw that he was suffering, and that the end was near. 

He gave me an earnest, inquiring look, and the expression of his face 
changed to almost hopelessness when he saw that I was troubled and anxious. 
He grasped my hand, and gently pulled me toward him.. 

I knelt beside him and said, " My dear boy, what can I do for you? " 

" I fear nothing, chaplain." 

" Shall I talk to you of God? " 

" Oh, yes ! I am used to that. I have loved him for two years, but not as 
much as I ought. I think I am going to hint." 

" Have you a mother? " 

" Oh, yes ! " Tears filled his eyes. 

" It must have been hard for her to have given a boy like you to your 
country." 

" Yes, it was. When I first began to talk about enlisting, she would not 
hear me ; but we prayed over it together, and at last she consented, saying it 
was her duty." 

I fanned his face, wetting his lips from my canteen, and in a little while he 
fell asleep. I remained by his side until he woke, occasionally brushing the 
hair from his forehead, when he said, — 

" Oh, I dreamed that it was Annie's hand. Won't 3^ou put it on my head 
again?" 

"Who is Annie? " 

" She is my twin sister. We were seventeen since I left home." 

The light river-winds played among his hair; the moon brightened, and all 
was still. He turned his check on my arm, as though there was a yearning 
within for sympathy. He then seemed to sleep again. I prayed over him a 
few minutes in silence. 

"Charlie?" 

There was no answer. I put my hand on his heart ; it was still. 

One of the Mexican party, who could speak English well, related 
an amusing story of some tourists who visited their country for the 
sake of drinking pulque, for some kidney disease with which they 
were troubled. This semi-invalid party were very much surprised to 




A RELIC OF THE WAR. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 209 

find out the character of the milk-cart that brought the milk of the 
maquey plant to market. 

THE PULQUE DRINKERS. 

The valley of the City of Mexico, in the State of Mexico, is one of the most 
beautiful in the world, and historically one of the most romantic and interesting. 
It is overlooked by two dead volcanoes, glistening with eternal snow, one of 
which is the renowned Popocatapetl. It is the valley of the Toltecs, of the 
ruined temples of vanished gods, of the Montezumas, of Galvez and the con- 
quistadors and the dons, of Hidalgos, of Juarez,^ and the Republic. It is white 
with sunshine, full of crumbling churches, and sweet chiming bells, — of odorous 
flowers, and a hundred varieties of roses. Here the clarina of clarine sings as 
sweetly and flutes as purely as in the days of the Toltecs, Aztecs, and Monte- 
zumas. Its climate is an eternal spring. 

Our tourists took rooms in the old palace-hotel of Itrabede, which is on 
San Francisco Street. The hotel was a palace of Itrabede,^ who overthrew the 
Spanish rule and established the Mexican monarchy. The house is everywhere 
covered with the initial I. It has a \o\r(t\y patio, or open court, and one here 
seems to live in the romances and tragedies of generations gone. English is 
spoken in the several hotels of this immense building, among which is the 
elegant Don Calos and the Americano. 

The first visit that our tourists made was to the solemn old churchyard of 
Don Fernando, in which some of the greatest heroes of Mexican liberty rest, to 
see the wonderful tomb of Juarez, — one of the most expressive and sympathetic 
works of art in the world. T^ey crossed the green alameda, where the Mexi- 
can band was discoursing delicious music, and soon came to the grated iron 
gate of the cemetery. It was locked. Presently a little old woman with a 
bunch of keys appeared. 

" Juarez," said a little chorus of voices. 

It was enough. The little old woman opened the gate with the grace of a 
countess, and led the way through the beautiful gardens of the dead. There 
were tombs everywhere. The pure sunshine sifted through the shadows of the 
evergreen trees ; the sweet clarinas sang in the near patios, and an air of 
enchantment seemed to breathe in all the place. 

The little old woman pointed to the tomb, which is a shrine of patriotic 
Mexicans. How beautiful it was ! — an airy pyramid or portico, hung with 

1 War-res. 2 It-ra-bc'-de. 



2IO ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

chaplets of flowers, some of which, they were told, cost little fortunes, but which 
were now withered. 

Juarez was the father and defender of Mexican liberty, and his tomb is 
buried in flowers sent to it from all the golden and flowery provinces. The 
traveller can hardly see the tomb for the chaplets. 

The tomb was opened by the withered old woman with the keys. With 
the exception of the Faith Monument at Plymouth, we know of no sculptures 
in America that are so poetic. The marble effigy represents the dead Presi- 
dent as lying in the lap of Liberty, or of the Nation, as the Mexicans say. 
The face is said to be perfect. The mourning statue of Liberty, or the Nation, 
is a powerful conception of art. The tomb of Juarez stands for freedom in the 
eyes of the Mexicans. The churchyard is one of the loveliest places in the 
world. 

Their next visit was to the palace-castle of Chapultepec, the ancient gar- 
dens of the Montezumas, and residence of the romantic viceroy Galvez, and 
the scene of one of the most important battles of the American-Mexican 
War. 

The party wished to walk to the castle, as the distance is only some three 
miles from the hotel, and the climate was a delight. Passing the bright ala- 
ineda., they came to the long avenue of statues that leads to the palace, which 
is shaded by eucalyptus-trees. The statue of Columbus first meets the eye; 
then the colossal statues of the Montezumas, and after them a long line of 
Mexican heroes. 

The palace rises over the city, and Popocatapetl lifts itself afar in the eternal 
azure over the palace, glistening with snow. The gardens of the palace, once 
the baths of the Montezumas, are full of caged animals, birds and flowers, and 
arc shaded with ancient trees, which are bearded with mosses. The castle is 
the summer home of the presidents of Mexico, who ride on prancing horses 
through the avenues between the city palace and the ancient gardens. The 
gardens of Chapultepec arc beautiful beyond any possible conception, over- 
looked as they are by the Sierra Madre mountains, the snowy volcanoes, and 
overlooking as they do the valley and the City of Mexico. The air is a 
serenity of sunshine. Fruit-dealers and flower-dealers are everywhere met; 
donkeys with light burdens larger than their own little bodies ; and sellers of 
pulque (pronounced polky), or the juice, or milk, of the maquey (pronounced 
majay) plant. 

Pulque is the national drink of the poor people of Mexico. It looks like 
milk, and tastes like sour milk. It is slightly intoxicating, if used in large 
quantities ; and in the cases of those who form the pulque habit, it makes one 



SrORY-TELLIXG ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 211 

dull and lazy. It has been much used by Americans of late as a remedy for 
kidney diseases, and especially for Bright's disease. The same moral objection 
is being made against its habitual use as against light wines and common beer. 
Few Americans would be likely to form the pulque habit. The juice or milk 
has much the same effect on the system as buttermilk, which is a remedy for 
the same diseases. 

The whole valley seems covered with the royal-looking maquey plant, from 
which pulque is milked or drawn. It is a plant of slow growth, and when ready 
to be tapped is worth some ten pesos, or dollars. 

The peon, or poor Mexican, cuts out the main stem of the plant when it is 
old enough to be tapped, and drinks the juice through a long tube, much as 
boys in the States suck cider through a straw. After drinking, he puts back the 
stalk into the well. 

At Chapultepec our tourist saw droves of little donkeys with what seemed 
to be dead pigs on their backs. They had up to this time enjoyed the drinking 
of pulque, and had imagined that they derived great benefit from its use. 

"What are these queer little donkeys carrying? " asked one of the happy 
invalids of a guide. 

" The juice of the maquey." 

" The century plant? " 

" Si, Senor." 

" Do those who drink the juice of the century plant live a hundred 
years? " 

" Si, Senor, except when they die sooner." 

" But these look like donkeys loaded with pigs." 

" They put the juice in pig-skins." 

" They do? What do they call the juice? " 

"Milk?" 

"Milk? What kind of milk. What kind of milk, in the name of 
decency? " 

"Why, Senor, you know, — pulque, just pulque." 

Our invalids all recovered then and there. Each declared himself cured, 
and was sure he would need no more medicine. And yet they eat sausages in 
the United States. 

The city of Vicksburg, like Memphis, is a habitation of the bluffs. 
It is four hundred or more miles north of New Orleans, — a cotton 
city; a place of churches, politics, and an easy life. In January, 1862, 



2 12 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

it was attacked by the naval forces from Memphis and New Orleans, 
but maintained its defences. It was besieged in 1863 by General Grant, 
and surrendered thirty thousand prisoners of war and two hundred 
cannon. 

Arthur spent the few hours which the class passed at Vicksburg 
in securing war-relics. He not only obtained shot and pieces of shell, 
but one officer's sword, and a Confederate uniform and flag, and a fife 
on which " Dixy " had been played during the siege. A very agree- 
able hotel clerk helped him in this search for the things for his home 
museum. 

Mrs. Green enlivened the long way between Vicksburg and New 
Orleans with pleasant society stories. 

" Do many of the women of the North lecture ? " asked a Southern 
woman of Mrs. Green one day on the sunny deck. I would not like 
to take part in any public meeting .f*" 

'' Nor I," answered Mrs. Green. " I am sure my husband would 
not approve of any attempt on my part to lecture." 

" No," said Mr. Green, meekly. " There was a lady in our town 
who attempted to lecture, and who read her diary of her efforts to 
Mrs. Green. She was not altogether successful. My wife made quite 
a story of it, which she used to recite in the form of a journal. Wife, 
tell us the story of Mrs. Freemantle's Lecture on Blunders, in the 
queer old way." 

Mrs. Green pretended to open a diary, and to read in a most 
serious way : — 

MRS. FREEMANTLE'S LECTURE ON BLUNDERS.^ 

September \. — Fall ist has come. The evenings are lengthening, and 
shorter and shorter are the golden bridges of the days. It will be an eventful 
fall to me, and I have resolved to keep a journal. I am to lecture this fall 
for the first time. I have often spoken in missionary meetings and at women's 

' From Harper's B.iznr. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MLSSISSIPPL 215 

clubs, and have taken apart in various benevolent conventions; but I have 
never entered the field as a public-lecturer until now. 

That is a delightful hour when a woman learns that she has the power to 
talk on her feet before an assembly. I was so delighted myself when the 
consciousness of this power first came to me that I did not know how to stop. 
I told my husband of this strange experience ; but he only looked up from his 
paper, and said, — 

" That is nothing remarkable ; no woman ever knows when to stop." 

" But, my dear," said I, " my case was a very peculiar one. After I had 
seemed to have finished, another thought would come to me, and I would utter 
the word ' and ' before I could restrain it." 

" Just like a lot of women at an open door," said he. " 'T is ' and,' * and ; ' 
and that word 'and' has led to more colds, pneumonias, and consumptions 
than any other word in the dictionary." 

"But don't you think it shows a very prolific imagination?" said I. " You 
see that I seemed to see things in my mind as in an open vision, and — " 

He seized his hat, and went to the club. 

I have chosen for the subject of my first popular lecture, " Blunders and 
Blunderers." I am to open the lecture-course at Tompkin's Ferry. I have 
chosen the subject of" Blunders and Blunderers," because I really have nothing 
in particular to say to the public, — no distinct inspiration, no special cause 
for going upon the platform. But on general principles, a woman who can 
talk should talk. The faculty itself is a proof of her calling. And there are 
some people who just love to talk. I do. If I did n't talk, I should n't say 
anything; and if I did n't say anything, my individuality would be lost. 
" Blunders " is a popular subject, and enables me to relate many amusing 
anecdotes of eminent people ; for it is the inventive and occupied mind that 
blunders. I show that blunders are an indication of genius; that it is the 
eventful mind that neglects uneventful things. I read the lecture as an essay 
before the Woman's Club, and it was received with great favor. " Brilliant, 
witty, and instructive," said the " Pioneer Press," " and well worthy of the 
lecture platform." 

" Well worthy of the lecture platform," — that decided me, I thought to 
myself; but husband does not see my gifts as other people do. 

" My dear," said I to him, when he had laid aside his paper one evening, 
" I have decided to lecture." 

He started as though the ghost of one of his departed creditors had passed 
the windows. 

"Lecture?" said he. "Lecture? Do I hear my own ears? What are 
you going to lecture upon?" 



2l6 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

\ 
" ' Blunders and Blunderers,' — that essay that I read before the club." 

" Do I hear my ears?" said he, again. " Mariana Freemantle, you are not 
going about rehearsing those old jokes about Dr. Johnson and Oliver Gold- 
smith, and Newton's seeing the bones of a chicken on the dinner-table, and 
forgetting whether it was he that had eaten the chicken or some one else, and 
men who forgot their wives and children, and all that. If you were impelled 
to speak for a cause, I would not object ; but you have no inspiring purpose, — 
only the vanity of hearing yourself talk, and people clap their hands like 
that; " he clapped his hands a la lecture-room, and it did sound rather cheap, 
and he then continued : " No, Mariana, don't go upon the platform ; stay at 
home and lecture me. I will pay you more than any lyceum bureau." 

I have been faithful to husband in this respect. He was my lecture-field 
for many years. He always received my views humbly, and paid me well 
until the year of his failure, and now he treats me generously again. 

September 4. — These are beautiful days — golden mornings, amber noons, 
rosy eves; calm days; the trees are laden with fruit; the flocks of birds are 
gathering for migrations. I am not wholly serene in mind amid all these 
atmospheres of serenity. Tompkin's Ferry troubles me. I have never been 
there ; but I am told that it is a very lively town. I am to lecture in the 
church. 

I have been adding illustrations to my lecture to-day. One of my topics 
is " Blunderers who went into Wrong Places." I have some very amusing 
incidents of such mistakes. 

I lock the doors of the house and rehearse the lecture every day after 
husband goes to the store. I ought to have studied elocution; but Nature is 
the great teacher of art. 

September 9. — I have been rehearsing before the dress-maker. Husband 
heard me rehearsing yesterday. I had just swept before the looking-glass, and 
had said, " The true mark of genius is to make a blunder," when lie looked 
through the door, and he said, — how could he have been so cruel? — he 
said, — 

" Mariana, you are a genius. When do you begin?" 

I shall not give him the date of my first lecture. I shall go alone. I might 
not be altogether successful. I recall Demosthenes, Curran, Disraeli, Webster, 
Chase, — one has to become used to audiences. Few people strike twelve at 
first; only one. I only expect to strike one, then two, then three, in the 
natural order. 

Have been making curves with the trail of my black velvet dress before 
the glass, and saying, " The true mark of genius is to make a blunder." 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 21 7 

Shrill wear diamonds. One should respect one's audience. To-morrow is 
the day, or rather the night. Shall wear asters. Fan. Shall all brighten up, 
and look tJiis way when I begin to speak about the true mark of a genius. 
Shall walk to and fro on the platform this way. I always used to admire the 
easy methods of Anna Dickinson. 

How I do enjoy myself at times thinking how it will all be ! Then I have 
a little nervous apprehension : events do not always follow the prophecy of the 
imagination. I am anxious at times ; but it is such a delicious excitement ! 
such a sweet anxiety! Ruffled life has a charm. 

Husband asked me about the date of " my performance." I treated him 
cavalierly. Said I, loftily — quoting Wendell Phillips, — "There are two kinds 
of people in this world : one kind go ahead and do something ; the other show 
how it should have been done in some other way." 

He merely said, " Oh ! " He saw the point. 

I wanted to say, " A critic is a man who has failed ; " but I spared his 
feelings. 

September \2. — The event is past. Thank the stars for the past! I am 
glad that there is a past for disappointed hearts. How confidently I began 
my journal Fall \st. It has been /cz// y^rj-/ indeed. But it shall not be fall 
second. 

I have lectured, or something. What was it? My mind is still confused. 

I left town early on the morning of the I2th. I took with me my maid, 
and told husband that I was going on a mission. He asked where. I recalled 
to him the Margravine of Hungary, whose basket of food turned into roses. 
He seemed to think the reminder a pretty one, and he looked benevolent, 
sympathetic, and merciful, and only said, " Don't make any blunders." 

The journey was a long one, and late in the afternoon the train was 
detained. 

What a dreadful thing it is to be detained a few hours just before one has 
an appointment to lecture ! What anxiety I what impatience ! what suspense ! 
About a mile on this side of Tompkin's Ferry, which is a manufacturing town, 
is the river, and over the river is a drawbridge. A vessel attempted to pass 
through the draw just as we arrived ; but the tide was low, and it grounded. 
There we were, and I with an appointment to lecture, and the trees were all 
aglimmer with the twilight. 

I said to the conductor, " I must go on. I am a lecturer." 

" You '11 have to walk then," said he, " or fly. Here we arc, and here we 
are likely to be until the tide rises." 

" But I have an appointment to lecture," said I. " I must go." 



2i8 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

But my words were air. The ship did not move, and the cars could not 
move, and there was a great bustle, and the twilight was fading. I was in 
terrible distress. 

" You might walk," said the conductor. " Walk over the ship, and climb 
up on the other side of the bridge. The boys have done this already. You 
might try it." 

" I will," said I. " I must keep my appointment, and it is now within an 
hour of the time." 

" You might run," said he. 

" I will," said I. " I cannot afford to make any blunders." 

I climbed down the bridge, and crossed the delayed ship, and ran up the 
other side of the bridge like a young girl, my maid following. My train 
caught on one of the timbers at the top of the bridge, and received a dam- 
aging rent. The town was in sight, with luminous mills and darkening 
trees. I hurried forward. It was past seven o'clock. I inquired for Federal 
Street, the place of the church ; but in my haste I did not rightly follow the 
direction. 

" Which is the way to Federal Street? " I again asked of a stranger. 

" Don't know, good woman. You ought to have kept the way when you 
had it. That is the way to never lose your way, — keep your way when you 
have it." 

I was thrown into a great state of nervous excitement by this philosophical 
answer. I received a right direction at last, and came to Federal Street. 
There was an open church, brilliantly lighted and full of people. 

I stopped in the vestibule, and my maid pinned on my rent train, as it was 
too late to mend it in the study or dressing-room. I went into the church, and 
hurried toward the platform. It was nearly eight o'clock, and I was sure that 
the audience were impatient for the lecture to begin. 

There was a desk on the platform, and a pitcher of water upon it. At the 
back of the desk was a large chair, and on one side of the desk sat a portly 
man, whom I supposed to be the chairman of the lecture committee. 

I removed my wraps hastily, and gave them to the maid ; then went upon 
the platform in a state of great confusion, and not at all in the elegant and 
graceful manner of my rehearsals. 

I sat down in the vacant chair, and turning to the portly man, said, " I am 
late-, the train was delayed." 

He looked at me in a strange way ; he opened his mouth, but his voice 
seemed to stick in his throat. He at last said, "Who? who?" which he 
pronounced Jioo, hoo, like an owl. 







PICTURESQUE VIEW 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 221 

I glanced over the audience. They were very solemn-looking people ; 
very self-respecting and reserved. In the front rows of pews were old people 
in very plain dress. The church was perfectly still. No one moved ; no one 
whispered. I thought I could see a look of surprise or inquiry on many faces; 
but I attributed this to the lateness and haste of my arrival. 

" Shall I begin? " I whispered, nervousl}^, to the portly man by my side. 

His mouth opened with an unmistakable expression of wonder and mystery, 
and he uttered the same owl-like, " Hoo? hoo?" as before. " The speaker is 
detained in the train on the other side of the river; the draw is up," said he, 
after several gasps. 

" Oh, no ; I am the speaker. I climbed over the ship an(^walked. You 
might tell them that. I am Mrs. Freemantle." 

" ' Climbed over the ship and walked ' " said he. " ' Might tell them that.' 
' Climbed over the ship and walked?' What ship .■' This is all very strange. 
Hoo.'' hoo? Mrs. Freemantle? Who is Mrs. Freemantle?" 

" I, the lecturer. Shall I begin? " 

" I don't know. The speaker will be here as soon as the draw is down. We 
have sent a carriage to the depot." 

" But / am the speaker. I climbed over the ship. I cannot explain it all 
now. It is time to begin. I will. It is past eight o'clock." 

I arose and filled a glass with water. 

" Ladies and gentlemen," said I, " I hope that you will pardon the delay. 
It has been unavoidable, as the train is detained at the draw. I climbed over 
the ship and walked." 

I could see from the expressions on all faces that my appearance and 
explanation seemed to suggest that some kind of miraculous event had 
happened. I felt a very uncongenial atmosphere about me, and was very ill at 
ease. I drank a full glass of water, as the roof of my mouth — if I may use 
this very unscientific term — was dry. I then recalled my rehearsals at home 
in the drawing-room, and swept out on the platform as I had seen Anna 
Dickinson do, and said, — 

" The true mark of genius is to make a blunder." 

In sweeping my trail I discovered that I had made one blunder at least. 
The pins had come out of the velvet, and there was exposed the fearful rent I 
had made in it when climbing over the top of the bridge. The circumstance 
was very confusing ; but I retired behind the little desk, and I again filled the 
glass with water, as my pharynx and oesophagus were becoming parched 
aeain. 



222 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

I had an illustration of a blunder for the beginning of my lecture which I 
thought was very amusing. It was the story of a couple who were going to 
be married, and were to take an express train to a distant city for the purpose 
of having the ceremony privately performed. They went on board the train, 
but seeing friends on the outside, got out to receive congratulations, became 
separated, and, while they were earnestly talking, another express train came 
into the depot. Suddenly the gong rang for the departure of the trains, — one 
train of which was going east, and the other west. The bride and the bride- 
groom hurried toward the cars, and got upon separate trains, as each train was 
moving away. I described the horror of the bridegroom and the terror of the 
bride on the discovery of the blunder. The story had greatly amused and 
interested the club when I read the paper before it. 

But it fell dead here. No one laughed; no one applauded. The church 
was as still as a hall of statues. I drank another glass of water, and wondered 
what I would do when the pitcher was exhausted. I continued, — 

" As I said, my hearers, the true mark of genius is to make a blunder,, 
and—" 

- There came rushing through the door a tall, clerical-looking man, with a 
white face and high forehead, a close collar and a white necktie, and a suit of 
black. He strode upon the stage, and stopped and glared at me as though I 
were a crazy woman. I stopped and bowed. 

He stood there with staring eyes, his coat on his arm, and his hat in his 
hand. 

" This is the preacher, madam," said the portly man, rising. 

"Is this Mrs. Freemantle?" asked the tall man, bowing. 

" Yes, I am Mrs. Freemantle, the lecturer." 

" I beg your pardon, madam, but this is not your church. Your audience 
are met at the church on the other end of the street. Yon have made a 
blunder." 

I had made a blunder indeed. I gathered up my torn train and walked 
clown the platform, and looked about for my little maid. 

It w^as now nearly nine o'clock. I went to the church at the other end of 
the street. The people were coming out of it, having been dismissed by the 
chairman of the lecture committee. I hurried toward the depot to be in time 
for the ten o'clock train home. 

September 14. — The morning paper has a paragraph headed, " A Curious 
l^lunder at Tompkin's Ferry." I would n't read that paragraph for untold 
gold. 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPL 223 

Before we give a more detailed account of New Orleans, let us 
revert to some more of the agreeable stories and curious episodes that 
enlivened our traveller's journey down the Mississippi. 

One sunny afternoon as the boat was gliding lazily along, Mr. 
Green attempted to give his friends a view of one of the remarkable 
enterprises of Chicago. He was seated at one end of the deck, and 
Mrs. Green with some ladies at the other. Near Mrs. Green was an 
old colored " mammy," who was called Aunt Cloe, who was famous as 
an " exhorter " and singer. 

" As wonderful as is the Fair," said Mr. Green, "it is not a bolder 
or more enterprising conception on the part of Chicago than that of 
her making Tampa, Florida, the port of South America. Think of 
the distance from Chicago to Port Tampa! Think also of the build- 
ing of a new suburb to Chicago a thousand miles away ! 

" The republics of Mexico and South America have thrown off the 
Spanish rule, dominion, and influence, and the native Indian races 
have regained their rights. Look at the achievements of Juarez in 
Mexico." 

At this point Miss Green came and whispered to Arthur that 
Aunt Cloe was about to tell a story. Arthur slowly and quietly 
slipped away to his mother's side. 

" Look at the Argentine Republic," continued Mr. Green ; " Don 
Pedro's flight from Brazil, after his noble reign ; look at the work in 
human progress brought about by Guzman Blanco! San Martin was 
another Washington, and well may the Argentine Republic make his 
tomb one of the honored spots of the earth ! Blanco was a hero, and 
the world never knew a nobler heart than the leader of all this 
progress, ' General Bolivar ! ' " 

At the close of tjiis interesting statement, Mr. Green was surprised 
to hear a mournful voice at the other end of the boat sineino-, — 

" ' Where. O where am de Hebrew childen ? 
Where, O where am de Hebrew childen ? 
Where, O where am de Hebrew childen ? 
Safe now in de Goodly Land.' " 



2 24 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

It was Aunt Cloe. The old song was familiar to him. There was 
nothing unusual about it so far except the interruption, and he 
continued, — 

" Chicago sees what South America and Central America is to be 
when the Nicaraguan Canal is finished and a common railway system 
unites the three Americas. This grand highway to the confederacy 
of the three Americas is to be through the Mississippi Valley, Chicago, 
Tampa, and the ports to Cape Horn. I think that the time is coming 
when all the republics of the New World will unite, and have one 
common high court, and that in that court all international questions 
will be settled, and there will never be any more cause for war, but — " 

" ' Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again,' " 

sang Aunt Cloe. 

There was a loud laugh at the other end of the boat, and all the 
ears of Mr. Green's auditors were turned in that direction. He was 
amazed to hear Aunt Cloe's new and enlarged view as to the 
" Hebrew children," and the admiring voices of the negroes as they fell 
into the chorus : — 

" ' Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again. 
Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again, 
Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again, 
Sz.it/rom de Goodly Land.' " 

Mr. Green's hearers all rose, and quickly turned away from his 
glowing account of the future of the native races of South America, 
and the Floridian port of Chicago, and the high court of the New 
World's republics that was to inaugurate an eternal era of peace in the 
three Americas, to Aunt Cloe, and the wonderful song-picture that 
she was giving of spiritual things. Aunt Cloe paused at the end 
of the remarkable refrain, and stared at the audience. 

" Wot make you laugh ? Dey will, yes dey will, bress de 
preachers and de elders ! " 

She lifted her face to the sun, and in a high key, continued, — 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



225 



" 'Where, O where, am de good ole elders ? 
Where, O where, am de good ole elders ? 
Where, O where, am de good ole elders ? 
Saf now in de Goodly Land ! 
Bum, bum by day 'II all come down again, 
Bum, bum by dey 'II all come down again, 
Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again, 
Saf from de Goodly Land ! ' " 

" You don't mean, Cloe, that they '11 all come down again," said 
Mrs. Green. " You mean that all the souls of good people will 
go up." 

" Go up ? Dey 've all gone up now. Go up } Dey 's gone. 
Wot good dat do } No, no, I 'se and de elder has got beyond dat, 
missus; yes, we has, bress my soul, I 'se privileged ; — I 's a professin' 
Baptis', — I 'm hastenin' on — missus. A steamboat once exploded 
her boiler right off here ! " 

This startling announce- 
ment led Mrs. Green to re- 
call the stories that she had 
read of the old steamboat 
races on the Mississippi. 
There is one curious story 
of these races that is old, 
and generally familiar, but 
is still repeated by passen- 
gers on the river steamers. 

" Cloe," said Mrs. Green, 
" did you ever hear of the 
steamer that won the race 
by the old lady's lard and 
hams } " 

" Don't I, missus .? Dat tale am gospel true. It were a mighty 
quar story, it wuz now. Dey won dat race, but de biler busted right 
in de middle uv de victory. Dey went up, but bress my soul, — 

IS 




A STEAMBOAT EXPLOSION. 



226 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

' Bum, bum by dey 'II all come down again, 
Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again, 
Bum, bum by dey '11 all come down again, 
Saf from de Goodly Land.' " 

Aunt Cloe turned her great black eyes upward, as she sung the 
refrain, and patted her hands on her knees. 

" This is as how it was, missus. Listen now, an' I '11 tell ye. Dat 
ole woman she was a mighty pious soul, she were, 

' Bum, bum by she '11 all come down again.' 

And she did n't believe in no races, nor card-playin' nor sich. She 
might ha' been a Methody ; but I expects she was a professin' Baptis', 
just like me, and one ob de saints ob the yearth. Well, she started 
down de ribber one morning wid hams and lard to sell, and she 
determined to start right. Alwus start, honey, and get yer bearin's, 
'coz you can nebber tell wot is goin' to happen. To-day we 're here 
smart as pepper-grass, and to-morrow we 'se all blown up ; but nebber 
min' de trouble. 

' Bum, bum by we '11 all come down again.' 

So don't be afraid, missus. 'Tain't every steamer dat get's blown 
up like dat one did. Dis is an ole steamer we 're on now : hear the 
biler wiggle-woggle. One never knows wot 's goin' to happen. 

" Well dat good old woman had some sense in her head, as well as 
grace in her heart, and she went to the captain, and says she, — 

" ' Capt'n, dis boat don't never race, does she } ' 

" ' No, — nor never gets beat,' said he. Yer see he wuz a double- 
mind man, and mighty onstable. 

" So de ole woman she felt peaceful-like, but still a little onsartin, 
an' she went agin to de capt'n, and sez she, — 

" ' Capt'n, I'se terribly afraid ob boats wot race, an' I would n't trus' 
my lard on no sech boats for no money. Are ye sure about it? You 
is n't one o' dem leap-frog kind o' men dat loses der head and senses 
and — ' 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



227 



" ' Oh, go long,' said de capt n ; ' if I were to try to race dis boat, 
she 'd bust.' 

" Den de ole woman she felt safe ; an' she put down her hams an 
lard on de deck, an' sat down, an' de trumpets blew, an' de bell 
jingled, an' de boat began to puff, puff, puff ! an' de wheels to beat 
de water. De ribber wuz as lubly as de ribber Jordan, an' de sun 
was shiny, an' everybody wuz happy. But at las' der come anudder 
steamer down de ribber, puff, puff, puff! an' she blew her trumpets, 
an' was goin' sailin' by, when de wicked passengers put der fingers 
on der noses, just like dat. 'T is a Yankee trick ; wot bad folks 
do up Nof. 




THE FAMOUS i<UX OF THE ROBF.RT K. LEK. 



" Well, honey, de capt'n uv de steamer could n't stan' dat. 
Dere 's some things human natur' can't stan'; and he fell from his 
steadiness an' forgot de prom is' he had made to de ole woman, an' 
shouted, — 

" ' Put on all steam,' and at dat dey fired up de ole biler. How 
dis boat does joggle ! Well, de two boats began to race. As soon 's 



228 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

de good ole lady wid de hams see wot dey wuz doin', she run up to 
de loft to de capt'n, and sez she, — 

" ' Capt'n, you 'se doin' a wicked ting ; but dat other capt'n, he am 
wickeder, an' don't you let de wickeder triumph ober de gooder, but 
wotebber ye, do, don't you let dat boat pass, — you just stan' to de wheel, 
an' I '11 wave my apron an' cry hooray ! ' 

" Well, you see dat good ole woman, she plum lost her head. Her 
heart wuz right, but her head went wrong. ' De ban's wur de 
ban's of Esau, but de voice wuz de voice of Jacob.' It is dreadful 
onfortunate doin' wen a pusson wid a right heart loses der heads. 
Wen a pusson loses his head, one can nebber know wot is gwine 
to happen. 

" Well dey raced an' raced. Sometimes one boat got ahead, an' 
den t 'other. An' de folks on both boats all orot excited-like an' 
\j'ent crazy-like an' shouted, an' wiggled dat Yankee trick from up 
Nof on der noses just so, like a crawfish out ob de water ; but by an' 
by de black boy come runnin' up from de hollows down below, de 
sweat runnin' like ribbers down his cheeks, an' he roll up his eyes, 
an' he shout to de capt'n, — ' 

" ' De wood 's all gin' out ! ' 

" ' Put on anyting you can find,' sez de capt'n, sez he. ' Put 
on de benches.' 

" So de boy he just jerked up de seats, and threw 'em down into 
de hollows below, an' put 'em on de fire ; an' de boat it shot ahead 
ob t' other one, an' de folks all danced an' shouted, an' de ole 
woman dat had been so afraid ob a racin'-boat, she waved her han'ker- 
chief, an' leaned back'ards an' for'ards, an' stooped up an' down, an* 
shouted ' hooray ! ' 

" But jus' den de boy he come up agin, all strcamin', ' Fuel all done 
gone now,' he shouted. ' Wot 's to be done, now ? ' 

" De capt'n he was all excitement now, an' shouted, ' Pour on 
de ile.' 



STORY-TELLING ON THE MISSISSIPPL 229 

*' So de boy poured on de ile ; but putty soon dat was all gone too, 
an' de oder boat wuz comin' up right along-side, puff, puff, puff ! — all 
puffed up wid pride an' vanity. An' de boat began to wobble- 
wobble, just as dis one am doin' now, an' ebberybody wuz in confusion 
an' despair. Dey were all at wit's-end. Wot happened } 

" ' Put on my lard an' hams,' shouted de good ole woman to dc 
boy ; an' der went up a great cheer. She wuz a patriot, — ain't dat 
what you call 'em .? An' dat boy he seized de ole woman's lard, an' 
poured it onto dat fire ; and de boat went wiggle-waggle, an' de 
wharf wuz jest ahead, an' she touched it fust, before dat oder one did. 
An' dey all shouted ' Victory ! ' 

" But just den when dey wuz all in dat state of happiment, an' 
dancin' an' hoorayin,' de ole biler had a relapse, — don't ebber relapse, 
honey, — an' blew all to bits, an' split de boat right open in de 
middle, an' some ob de folkses were kilt, an' some were shot up into 
de heabens ; but never you mind, honey, — 

' Bum, bum by dey 'II all come down again.' 

Dat dey will. Dat hymb am mighty comfortin'." 

Mrs. Green said, " I '11 take a back-seat as a story-teller now." 
There is a great rivalry among the Baptist and Methodist colored 
people in the South Mississippi River country. Each member of each 
of these great denominations tries to do especial honor to his church 
by superior conduct, habit, and experience ; and there is something not 
unpleasing in this trait of character. So when the tourist hears the 
frequent allusion on the part of these people to ' professin' Baptist,' 
or ' shoutin' Methodist,' he feels that there is a seed of honor in the 
pride, and is glad to note its worth. The happiness of these people 
lies in their religious hopes, and no hearts are better prepared for 
educational influences. 

If old Aunt Cloe awakened a genuine interest as a story-teller, 
she was in danger of a rival. Her musical story had reminded Arthur 



230 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

of the old German song of Johnnie Schmoker; which he proceeded to 
act, to the great amusement of both the white and the colored people. 



COLUMBUS AND THE EGG. 

There was one story of the journey that greatly delighted ail 
parties wherever it was told, and it was told often. It was developed 
by Arthur. The boy had read the oft-repeated incident of Columbus 
and the esre : how that the marines had claimed that he could make 
an ^g% to stand on end, and did so by breaking the end of the eggs, 
and when reminded that any one could do that, answered, " If one 
knew how." He had heard one say that a person could put an ^^^ 
into a bottle, " if one knew how, and that there was a way to do it." 

Arthur had learned the way, and sought to accomplish it in the 
interest of his home museum. He first soaked the egg in vinegar. By 
a slow process he pushed the &%% from whose shell the lime had thus 
been extracted into a bottle, through a neck half its size. He then 
filled the bottle with water, and added lime, which formed a new shell 
to the egg ; then poured out the water, and the experiment was suc- 
cessful. He showed the egg in the bottle to his friends, old and new, 
told the story of Columbus, and used to say, — 

" Nothing is a mystery when you know how a thing is done." 

" Dat am so," said a young negro to whom Arthur showed the 
egg on the boat and made this wise remark, and who added, 
winking and blinking, — 

" ' I saw two stars arising 
Upon the shady sky — 
Oh, no — I was mistaken, 
'T was the glimmer of her eye ! ' 

Nofin' is a myster', boss. Ya, ya, ya ! " 
That bit of poetry was Oriental. 



CHAPTER XIV. 




CARNIVALS AND LEGENDS, 
NEW ORLEANS. 

HEN October comes around, St. 
Louis has a wonderful day of 
patriotic street pageants. At this 
festival the Veiled Prophet, as in 
Moore's " Lalla Rookh," has her 
splendid court. Concord in the 
days of Miss Alcott used to have 
a like festival on the 4th of July, 
when patriotic tableaux were made 
to float under illuminations at 
night, down the river. 



A NEW ORLEANS HOLTDAY.i 

So mighty is the mighty Mississippi where it rolls by the city, curving in a 
crescent as it goes, and so vast are the bayous and lakes about her, that one would 
not easily suppose New Orleans had raised her splendor more than a hundred 
miles from the sea. There is something romantic and marvellous in her seat, 
among so many waters and below the level of the river that pushes itself and its 
detritus through innumerable mouths far out into the Gulf below her. 

The town is protected by an embankment called a " levee," generally used 
as a wharf by throngs of steamers and packets ; it rises several feet in a gradual 

1 This topic is written by Mrs. Harriet Prescott Spofford, and is used by permission of 
the " Youth's Companion." 



232 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



slope, so that no flood in the river will overflow the streets. The levee on 
another side of the city skirts the lake, and is a protection against the back- 
water of storms. 

These embankments are in use all along the course of the Father of 
Waters ; and when by any caprice of the river, by undermining through their 
own weight, or bad building, or other reason, a break in them occurs, miles and 

miles of country are swept under 
the current, to the destruction of 
everything but the virgin soil, 
and sometimes even of that. It 
is one of these occurrences that 
has furnished Mr. Cable with his 
powerful story of " The Belles 
Demoiselles Plantation," where 
the unnoticed river, eating its 
slow way, suddenly at night 
bursts all bounds, and the land, 
and the house, with its lights 
and harp-players and dancers, 
go down and disappear in the 
horrible darkness. The water- 
works of the city have now 
brought the Mississippi into the 
hydrants, and the gutters are 
flushed by the great river that, 
when kept in close bonds, does 
good service. 
The city occupies the whole parish of Orleans, which is, in reality, about a 
hundred and fifty square miles ; but only about forty of them are used. One 
mile of it was originally laid out by De la Tour, with the streets crossing at 
right angles, the cathedral at the front centre ; but where the town has 
extended, it has done so irregularly. There arc beautiful parks and squares, 
canals for commerce and for drainage, hospitals and hotels, a mint, a custom- 
house, a host of markets, a city hall of white marble, a hundred and forty-seven 
public schools, and street railways run by fireless engines. Canal Street, \\bich 
is a splendid avenue, a hundred and fifty feet wide, divides the old town from 
the new. 

The old town is chiefly the ancient French settlement, where the streets 
arc often not forty feet in width, with quaint names, like Rue Royale, Rampart, 




THE CRESCENT CITY. 




CANAL STREET. NEW ORLEANS. 



CARNIVALS AND LEGENDS, NEIV ORLEANS. 235 

Esplanade, with quaint signs over them, and with quainter people frequenting 
them. Because of the unusual in face and speech, and because of its historical 
character, replete with legend, this is a much more interesting portion of he 
city than that with the broad, well-shaded streets and spacious houses in the 
midst of gardens, where the sward is greener than emerald, and one looks 
through the open palings upon clusters of the deep-pink crape-myrtle, upon 
palm-ferns, upon open galleries peopled by lovely ladies in lawns and laces, 
where the magnolias lift their dark towers of shining greenery, and where 
here and there an old palm-tree invites the eye up its thirty or forty feet of 
scaly bark and, dropping its old brown boughs, high in the blue air is putting 
forth its new plumes. 

There are several of these palm-trees in the city, and everybody has an 
affectionate remembrance of Pere Antoine's date-palm, that grew from the 
heart of little Anglice. If a suggestion of Sir Charles Lyell's were adopted, 
that an avenue should be planted with a double row of these stately and 
gracious palms, it would be an added charm to a place that hardly needs one. 

It makes a child of New England feel far away from home when looking 
at the lovely marvel of a palm-tree ; yet, nevertheless, if once inside those 
pleasant places, one is made to feel very much at home. One seems to be in 
a land of enchantment though, when looking out at one of these gardens in full 
bloom, just as a shower has fallen, and a norther comes up to freeze every drop 
of the rain, and sheathed in the thin film of ice, that has formed too quickly to 
wither them, every flower sparkles in the returning sunshine with ruby and 
sapphire and topaz petals, — till Aladdin's garden itself, where every leaf on 
every tree was a gem, could do no more in the way of splendor. 

There are several features of New Orleans that are to be seen in few other 
cities, and that strike the stranger's eye. One is the sewage in the open gutters, 
that crawls festering along with slime and scum on the top, even through the 
finest streets, that one has to step across at every crossing, and that one meets 
a little way out of the more populous portion of the place in a canal ten feet 
wide, scattering an intolerable stench. It is, doubtless, from such and kindred 
sources that New Orleans gives the yellow-fever so good nourishment, — that 
monster which does its worst often in the fairest parts of the place, and leaves 
the calaboose in safety. It would seem as if the Mississippi hydrants might do 
their work a little more effectually in flushing these gutters; but it perhaps 
takes an even stronger power than the mighty river to clean them, as, after 
they have run their slow length of filth to its receptacle, the contents have to 
be pumped up and discharged into deep water. 

Although the water is brought into town, as before stated, nearly every 



236 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

house has its cistern for rainwater besides, built above ground, lest any of the 
moisture of the damp river-penetrated soil should percolate through their 
sides; these cisterns are circular, and hooped hke a gigantic hogshead, and 
they sometimes reach to the top of the third story. One gets interested in the 
sight, and feels that only those in this climate have wealth and luxury who 
have broad galleries and enormous cisterns. This water is cooled for drinking 
by ice which is manufactured through chemical means, of a finer grain and 
at a rather cheaper rate than nature can supply it, taking freight into 
consideration. 

It is this wet soil which makes it impossible to dig a cellar or a grave in 
New Orleans. All the dead are buried above ground in little ovens, as one 
might call the mounds, or in stately tombs. This necessity has brought about 
another necessity, — that of making the cemeteries beautiful. Although there is 
something disagreeable to unused eyes and sensibilities in the little marble 
temples, whose glass doors allow one to see the caskets on their shelves, with 
their wreaths of immortelles, or of fresh flowers, yet the habit of thorough 
renovation just before each All Saints' Day, the alleys and fountains, the 
temples and groups of sculpture, the willows and wisaches, the live-oaks draped 
in funereal mosses, the magnolias and palms and flowers, make these cemeteries 
places of great beauty 

But the whole region of New Orleans is one of remarkable beauty. In the 
city, even where the houses are in blocks and rows, they are covered with lace- 
like fronts of iron balconies, and many of the dwellings are of a peculiar 
architecture, pretty, low, masked in vines, and surrounded by small gardens. 
There is a charming drive to Lake Pontchartrain, on the Shell Road, and one 
of the favorite diversions is to go out of a hot night, either by rail or road, to 
the old Spanish fort or to the restaurants at the West End, and order a supper 
of pompanos and soft-shell crabs and other delicacies, served on the veranda 
(and now by the electric light), while the cool, delicious breeze blows off the 
lake, and sails steal slowly about far out on the horizon's edge of the purple 
waters. Nothing is more weird and captivating to the fancy than the light- 
houses down among these lonely waters. 

By whatever way you enter New Orleans, you can gather an idea of the 
amount of wealth of which it is and is to be the entrepot ; whether you see it 
coming down the river in barges and three-decker steamboats, or whether on 
the huge freight-steamers that wind in the other direction along the rich regions 
of the southern shore. 

Perhaps no richer regions exist in the world than these, — the great planta- 
tions of the Teche and of St. Mary's Parish, where immense plains, teeming 




OLD TIME CAKMVAL SCENE, NEW ORLEANS. 



CARXIl'ALS AND LEGENDS, NEIV ORLEANS. 



239 



with lice and sugar and cotton, stretch their dazzHng tender green into the 
distant sky, broken by no other fence than at long intervals a blossoming 
hedge, or else a wilder reach of cypress-swamps, the lofty trees gay with a wild 
luxuriance of vine and gorgeous bloom, — flashing with pools of water, on whose 
edges one often sees a basking alligator, a beautiful blue heron, or a rosy 
spoon-bill ; here and there a narrow water-way opening, down which float the 



A A 




THE SPANISH FORT NEAR NEW ORLEANS. 



cypress ties cut far back in the forest, and fastened together by chains and 
ropes. 

On this side of New Orleans there is a world of romance appertaining to 
the days of slavery; in New Orleans itself, to the old French and Spanish life; 
and in the islands round the mouth of the river, to the days of the pirate 
Lafitte. 

Lafitte, although he once fortified the two ends of the island, and styled 
himself Governor of Galveston, at another time made his stronghold in the flat 
land, a dozen miles or more below the city. Among the innumerable branches 
and bays, concealment for himself and his outlaws was the easiest matter in the 
world ; and on the island of Barataria, favorably situated for the purpose, and 
with easy escape, very healthy and abounding with game, he erected his 
fortifications. 

Lafitte had been one of Bonaparte's captains ; he was well known in New 
Orleans, and not discountenanced at first. I have seen an old lady of good 



240 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



family who in her youth had danced with him, and to whom he had made a 
present of diamonds, as I was told. But later, and when his outrages became 
unbearable, the Governor of Louisiana offered a reward of five hundred dollars 
for his head. 




MARDI-GRAS. 



He replied immediately by offering a reward of fifteen thousand dollars 
for the head of the governor. A company of soldiers sent against him were 
surrounded by the pirate's men, who rose from a hundred secret ways, took 
them all prisoners, but afterwards released them in scorn. An officer of the 
navy, with his gun-boats, had to retreat before them, and it was not till the 



CARXIVALS AA'D LEGENDS, XEIV ORLEANS. 



2LT 



United States sent a formidable force against them that the nest of pirates 
were destroyed. 

The people of New Orleans arc, perhaps, as cosmopolitan as any in the 
world, if not more so. Among them are many Roman Catholics, and that 

may be the rea- 
son why certain 
festivals of the 
Carnival season 
are kept by them 
with great dis- 
play, especially 
that of the Mar- 
di-gras, which the 
French citizens 
began to cele- 
brate at about 
1827. 

It is a legal hol- 
iday, under the 
control of King 
Carnival, known 
as Rex, who ap- 
pears suddenly 
upon the streets, attended by his 
special guard, and escorted by United 
States troops and marines, in a proces- 
sion of surpassing beauty, group after 
group arranged regardless of expense, 
with superb effect, and drawn slowly along 
in a dazzle of splendor. This group, per- 
haps, illustrates Egypt, — pyramid, palm- 
tree, Pharaoh, with Cleopatra in her barge, 
with the fellah of the Nile and tiic Sphinx 
watching these various eras of her children ; 
and that one is Chivalry, with the knights and ladies, falcons and medinjval 
accessories; another is Music, it may be, or it is the event of some especial 
epoch, such as the meeting of the Kings in the Field of the Cloth of Gold, or 
the walk of Hypatia, where Jew and Greek and Goth and early Christian met 
on the same spot. 

16 




MARDI-GRAS FEATS OF CHIVALRY. 



2^2 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The idea of each group is a central one, and it is carried out with spirit. 
Jewels and velvets and cloth of gold are but a part of the sumptuous array 
where everything is on a princely scale. The affair has been of so long date 
that even the children know the characters, and can call them by name. 

At night the Mystick Crewe take up the tale, — a secret body, none outside 
of their own band knowing who they are, coming from nowhere, and departing 
as they came. 

A ball, at which Rex chooses his queen, takes place after a series of match- 
less tableaux, the whole arrangement being as superbly scenic and processional 
as can be made. One prefers not to see in this anything like an advertisement 
to bring the money of strangers into the place ; but if it were so, it is certain 
the strangers get their money's worth. 

On the whole, it will be seen, that few places have more to offer strangers 
than New Orleans ; and its climate is one of balm, — the frost seldom amounting 
to discomfort, and the heat always tempered by a Gulf breeze. 

We have given the story of De Soto in another volume, and 
also that of La Salle. There is one romantic pioneer associated 
with the early history of the Gulf country whose adventures are seldom 
told. It is Galvez, who gave the name to Galveston, and who was 
viceroy of Mexico, and raised the white castle of Chapultepec out ot 
the ruins of the halls and baths of the Montezumas. There is one 
heroic story told of Galvez which equals anything related of De Soto 
or La Salle, the historic pioneers of the Mississippi. We give it in 
verse : — 

GALVEZ. 

Beneath the dusky tropic stars, 

And misty moons that rose and fled, 
His fleet with droo]:)ing sails and spars 

Across the breathless Gulf he led, — 
Galvez! 
A man of noble mien was he, 
Who thought that will was destiny. 

In flaming skies he saw afar 
Clear Pensacola's palmy sound. 



CARNIVALS AND LEGENDS, NEW ORLEANS. 243 

And, rising o'er the Iiarbor bar, 
The English fortress, turret-crowned, — 
Galvez ! 
And Enghsh flag that claimed the main, 
And mocked the double crowns of Spain. 

" No ship can ever cross the bar," 

The pilots, one by one, exclaimed ; 
He scanned the glimmering sky afar. 

Where low the red-cross banner flamed, — 
Galvez ! 
"The ships shall cross the bar," said he. 
" And plough the white sands like the sea. 

" On, on ! " The unwilling rudders turned 

Toward the narrow channels, when 
He in the sinking tides discerned 

The shifting sands, and called again, — 
Galvez ! 
" Brave men, like gods, events create, 
And will is destiny, — not fate ! " 

" Back, back again !" broke from the lips 

Of Spanish pilots, old and grave ; 
Stern grew the master of the ships, 

And grand, as though he ruled the wave, — 
Galvez ! 
" Bring me the cross of Spain," said he, 
"And launch the life-boat on the sea ! " 

The boat was launched ; the flag of Spain 

He seized with purpose firm, and then 
He leaped upon the level main, 

And proudly turned toward his men, — 
Galvez ! 
And rowed the life-boat toward the bar. 
Then faced the silent crews afar. 

" Shall Spain's sea banner suffer loss? " 

Its folds Castilian rippled down, 
Two golden crowns beneath the cross, 

And for a kingdom stood each crown, — 
Galvez ! 
What sullen eyes bclicld him bear 
That glimmering banner through the air ! 



244 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Boom, boom ! The English guns rang clear, 
And fell a shower of leaden rain, 

But Galvez heard without a fear. 
And faced the wondering crews of Spain, — 
Galvez ! 

" Ho, anchors lift ! " loud shouted he, 

"And plough the sand-bars like the sea!" 

Boom, boom ! the fortress thundered loud, 

And fell again the rain of fire ; 
But he, amid his silken cloud, 

Moved on like Arion with his lyre, — 
Galvez ! 
Moved on, and on, and cried again, 
" Ho, follow me, ye ships of Spain ! " 

The banner shining on the sea. 

The smoke rolled o'er it like a cloud, 

Then from the shade it floated free 
O'er Galvez, still erect and proud, — 
Galvez ! 

Immortal be his name. 

'Tis souls that burn that souls inflame ! 

Lo, now the white sails lift on high, 
Gay with the flags of old Castile ! 
He sees the light ships toward him fly. 
And plough the bar, keel after keel, — 
Galvez ! 
His soul alone upon the sea 
Had won a twofold victory ! 

Whene'er I see Galveston's arch 
Above the booming waves, I feel 

His spirit still whose mighty march 
The city and the bay reveal, — 
Galvez ! 

A man of inspiration, he 

Who walked with feet of faith the sea. 



iMew Orleans, poetic, historic, sunny, at last came into view, its 
spires shading the red light of an almost tropic sunset. It extends 
six miles along the river with which it wages war over the levees, and 
which it holds captive by a strong arm. It commands ten thousand 



CARNIVALS AND LEGENDS, NEW ORLEANS. 



247 



miles of steam navigation, and as a port is one of the wonders of the 
world. Like Liverpool, it is a city of ships as well as of houses. It is 
a Queen of the Sea and the rivers as well as of the land. 

The history of New Orleans is that of three empires. The city 
began with the Spanish Conquest, was settled by the French in 171S,. 
and was transferred to Spain in 
1763, and soon after was trans- 
ferred to France again. It be- 
came a part of the United States 
through a treaty negotiated by 
Napoleon I., in 1803. ^^ 1S15 
it was attacked by the British 
army, and defended by General 
Jackson at the famous battle of 
New Orleans. 

The old cathedral impressed 
itself upon the class, and the 
French market was a delight to 
Arthur. 

At the airy hotel, Mr. Green, 
p'ere, related the romantic story of 

Iberville, the father of the Colony of Louisiana. This man, who was 
one of a family of eleven brothers, two of whom, Bienville and Sanvolle, 
were pioneers of the Mississippi, was commissioned to explore the 
great river in 1698. He came with a fleet and erected fortifications 
near Mobile. In 1700 he explored the Mississippi, and from this date 
began the settlement of the Southern Mississippi Valley. 

The reader may like to see the poem, " On the Shores of Tennes- 
see," which we described as having been read to music on the boat. 
It was written in war days, and has never ceased to haunt the platform, 
and, read to the music of the " Star-Spangled Banner," is picturesque 
and touching, and usually awakens a spell of sympathetic memories : 




■tUU'AiW^l'l-ViUD S«» 



STATUE OF JACKSON, NEW ORLEANS. 



248 



^^,4^-aAG -fJ)C//iAEVS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 




THE UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS- 



ON THE SHORES OF TENNESSEE. 



Music — " Star-Spanglcd Banner." 

" Move my arm-chair, faithful Pompey, 

In the sunshine bright and strong. 
For this world is fading, Pompey, -- 

Massa won't be with you long; 
And I fain would hear the south wind 

Bring once more the sound to me 
Of the wavelets softly breaking 

On the shores of Tennessee. 

** Mournful though the ripples murmur, 

As they still the story tell, 
How no vessels float the bannef 

That I 've loved so long and well, 



CARNIVALS AND LEGENDS, NEW ORLEANS. 249 

I shall listen to their music, 

Dreaming that again I see 
Stars and Stripes on sloop and shallop 

Sailing up the Tennessee. 

" And, Pompey, while old Massa's waiting 

For death's last despatch to come, 
If that exiled starry banner 

Should come proudly sailing home, 
You shall greet it, slave no longer, — 

Voice and hand shall both be free, 
That shout and point to Union colors 

On the waves of Tennessee." 

" Massa 's berry kind to Pompey ; 

But ole darky's happy here. 
Where he 's tended corn and cotton 

For 'ese many a long-gone year. 
Over yonder Missis sleeping — 

No one tends her grave like me; 
Mebbe she would miss the flowers 

She used to love in Tennessee. 

"'Pears like she was watching, Massa, 

If Pompey should beside him stay ; 
Mebbe she'd remember better 

How for him she used to pray ; 
Telling him that way up yonder 

White as snow his soul would be. 
If he served the Lord of heaven 

While he lived in Tennessee." 

Silently the tears were rolling 

Down the poor old dusky face, 
As he stepped behind his master, 

In his long-accustomed place. 
Then a silence fell around them. 

As they gazed on rock and tree, 
Pictured in the placid waters 

Of the rolling Tennessee ; — 

Master, dreaming of the battle 

"Where he fought by Marion's side, 
When he bid tlie haughty Tarlcton 

Stoop his lordly crest of pride ; 



250 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Man, remembering how yon sleeper 

Once he held upon his knee, 
Ere she loved the gallant soldier, 

Ralph Vervair, of Tennessee. 

Still the south wind fondly lingers 

'Mid the veteran's silvery hair ; 
Still the bondman, close beside him, 

Stands behind the old arm-chair. 
With his dark-hued hand uplifted, 

Shading eyes, he bends to see 
Where the woodland, boldly jutting. 

Turns aside the Tennessee. 

Thus he watches cloud-born shadows 

Glide from tree to mountain crest, 
Softly creeping, aye and ever. 

To the river's yielding breast. 
Ha, above the foliage yonder 

Something flutters wild and free ! 
" Massa, Massa ! Hallelujah I 

The flag 's come back to Tennessee ! " 

" Pompey, hold me on your shoulder, 

Help me stand on foot once more, 
That I may salute the colors 

As they pass my cabin door. 
Here 's the paper signed that frees you : 

Give a freeman's shout with me, — 
' God and Union ! ' be our watchword 

Evermore in Tennessee." 

Then the trembling voice grew fainter, 

And the limbs refused to stand ; 
One prayer to Jesus, — and the soldier 

Glided to that better land. 
When the flag went down the river, 

Man and master both were free, 
While the ring-dove's note was mingled 

With the rippling Tennessee. 



MISS/SSIPPI DAY. 



251 



MISSISSIPPI DAY. —THE STRANGE LEGEND OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The great legends of England and Germany each relate to the 
slaying of a dragon by a champion of honor and the Christian faith. 
In them is figuratively represented the triumph of good over evil, of 
right over wrong. It is remarkable that the great legend of the 
Mississippi River should have been essentially the same. 

In his journey of discovery in 1673, Marquette came to the Great 
River on June 17, — Mississippi Day. Marquette passed on the 







MARQUETTE AND JOLIET CROSSING THE GREAT LAKES. 



Mississippi the mouth of the Illinois River, and glided in his canoe 
under some high rocks which became known among the French as 
"The Ruined Castles." Under that name these bluffs appeared on 
the old French maps. The explorer believed that the Devil was the 
lord of the wilderness, but that his dominion would fade and vanish 



2.52 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



before the advent of the Cross. The early Jesuits went on their 
journey singing, — 

" Ye mysteries of the Cross, advance ; 
Ye glorious truths, shine forth." 

As Marquette looked up to these castle-like rocks from his canoe 
on the smooth water, he beheld a sight that filled him with terror and 
wonder. On the flat surface of one of the bluffs were representations 
of two dragons. 



They were colored after the old historical traditions. 










MARQUETTE AND JOLIET AT ANXHOR ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



in green, red, and black. Each, he says, was " as large as a calf, with 
horns like a deer, red eyes, a beard like a tiger, and a frightful expres- 
sion of countenance. The face," he continues, "was like a man's; 
the body was covered with scales, and the tail was so long that it 
passed entirely round the body, over the head and between the legs, 
ending like that of a fish." The green color, the scales, and the wind- 
ing tails of these two monsters suggested the work of a European 
mind, or more likely the artifice of the Evil One. The Jesuits looked 
upon the place as the Devil's rocks, and turned to their crucifixes. 

The rock where these monsters were seen was at a point just 
above the place where the city of Alton now stands. 



MISSISSIPPI DAY. 253 

"The Evil One here has set his image," said one of the Jesuits; 
" but when the Cross shall pass by it, it will vanish away." 

He lifted the Cross, and the canoe drifted slowly on. 

" I must make a picture of the Two Dragons," said Marquette. 

He did so. This picture appeared on an old map made by the 
order of the Intendant Duchesneau, and gave the legend a thrilling 
meaning. Copies of the picture still exist. 

Were these dragons with green color, scales, and winding tails, the 
work of Indians } If so, where did the native races receive the idea ,? 
Were they the work of unknown explorers ? If so, the Mississippi 
was discovered by unknown explorers long before the days of De 
Soto, Marquette, and La Salle. 

The figures were seen by Saint Cosmo in 1699, but they had nearly 
disappeared. Joutel, an explorer, saw them ; but not being of a super- 
stitious mind, he was not terrified by them. 

They gradually faded, not on account of the passing by of the 
champions of the Cross, but by the natural effects of time. In i860, 
or about that date, they had disappeared, and a part of the rock had 
been quarried away. 

The disappearance of the Two Dragons of the Mississippi before 
the Cross was the material for a fine poetic story, picture, or work of 
art. The romantic life of Marquette, his visionary and prophetic 
beliefs, his dramatic death, — all make this scene worthy of allegorical 
representation. 

Parkman in his " La Salle " thus pictures the poetic historical 
events that followed the sight of the Two Dragons: — 

" They continued a long time to talk of them (the pictured monsters) as 
they plied their paddles. They were thus engaged when they were suddenly 
aroused by real danger. A torrent rushed athwart the calm current of the 
Mississippi, boiling and surging, and sweeping in its course logs, branches, and 
uprooted trees. They had reached the mouth of the Missouri." 

Parkman adds : — 



254 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

"They passed the lonely forest that covered the site of the destined city of 
St. Louis, and a itw days later saw on their left the mouth of the stream to 
which the Iroquois had given the well-merited name of Ohio, or the Beautiful 
River." 

The period of the great emigration to the Mississippi Valley came, 
and science has crumbled the Castle Rocks where dwelt the Dragons 
in effigy. The beautiful city of Alton arose near the place of the 
poetic superstition, — if events of prophetic meanings can be called 
superstitious. 

The Dragons overcome by the progress of Christian civilization is 
a subject well worthy of the consideration of those who seek allegori- 
cal emblems for art in association with the great Mississippi Valley. 

Mississippi Day is locally celebrated on the date of the discovery 
of the Great River. There is but little literature that relates to the 
great event. The holiday may grow with the empire, and into it may 
come the Dragon Legend. 

MISSISSIPPI DAY. 

O TIME ! O change ! how have these prairies altered 

Since those dim, distant days 
When, tranced with beauty, lonely Allouez faltered 

In his uncertain ways ; 

Since on these streams the dark-robed Jesuits drifted 

Far from the crystal seas, 
And knighted sea-kings on the blue lakes lifted 

The silver fleur-de-lis ! 

Here prayed Marquette, by ancient tribes surrounded 

In forest ways untrod. 
And lonely Joliet mighty cities founded, 

Where first he talked with God, 

Far from the Huron's many-foliaged village, 

Far from the Iroquois, 
Far from the scenes of rapine, hate, and pillage. 

Beside the Illinois. 




A VISION OF THK SOL'TH. 



MISSISSIPPI DAY 257 

They saw the land with peace and plenty growing, 

On rolled the river fair, 
And seas of flowers o'er endless shallows floiving, 

And seas of odorous air. 

The lonely chief upon his pine-plumed aerie 

Gazed o'er the sea of blooms, 
And watched the strange sail as it wandered weary 

Amid the twilight glooms. 

The bison, cooling in the stream before them. 

Fled to the dark oak's shade ; 
The wondering eagle wheeled on slant wing o'er them ; 

Their sails the warm winds swayed. 

Still on and on the dark priests wandered, praying 

And singing hymns of praise ; 
And on and on the river rolled, displaying 

Its grand march to their gaze. 

Then came La Salle his water-chariot driving 

Triumphal down the tide, 
And, hard against the imprisoned currents striving, 

Rode on the ocean wide. 

Oh cross that marched into the sunset gleamino^, 

Down from the northern seas, 
That nations followed wondering and dreaming, — 

The silvery fleur-de-lis, 

The red cross flags, the cour-de-bois, the ranger, 

The knight, the chevalier. 
The poor of earth, the exile freed from danger. 

The lonely pioneer, — 

Faith still beholds thee on the waters glowing 

In twilight's amber air, 
While Marquette walks the uncertain waves, yet knowin"- 

That God is with him there ! 

Unlike De Soto, Marquette is a lively character to associate with 
Mississippi Day. " He was," says an historian, " of a cheerful, joyous 
disposition, playful even in manner, and universally beloved." 

The death scene of Marquette which we have described in another 

17 



258 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

volume is one of the most poetic incidents of early American 
history. 

There is a singular correspondence in the dates of two great local 
Iiolidays, — Bunker Hill Day in the East, and Mississippi Day in the 
Middle West, — both of which fall on June 17. The expedition 
under Marquette found the Mississippi by the way of the Wisconsin 
River. The Great River came into view at the point now called 
Prairie du Chien. The scenery of the Wisconsin delighted Mar- 
quette ; and when the Mississippi rolled across his way on that glorious 
June day, there must have come to him one of those moments of joy 
that only great souls can know. 

The scene of Marquette at the mouth of the Wisconsin, and that 
of the finding of the two Dragons pictured on the rocks, are the ones 
that linger most in the mind of the poet of history. The time will 
be likely to come when a sense of the worth and meaning of these 
scenes will give them place in art. But the world riiust see the har- 
vest before it can know the value of the worth of the sower, and em- 
pires and cities must grow before they can crown their founders. 

A STRANGE LEGEND OF THE FIRST DISCOVERER OF 

THE MISSISSIPPI. 

"The country of gold lies before you; but there are dark rivers to cross. 
I have learned these things from living among the caciques." ^ 

The Spaniard who uttered these words to P'ernando de Soto was stately and 
handsome, of middle age, and of unquestioned bravery. 

" I am sure that I can pilot you there." 

The cavalier gazed upon him. 

" You were left here in this land of Florida on the first expedition," said 
De Soto. " That was ten years ago." 

" Yes." 

" And you have come to love these children of Nature and the palm-lands? " 

" Yes, Senor. Why have you brought these bloodhounds and these 
chains?" 

^ Cas-seeks'. 



JI//SS/SS/PJV DAi- 



259 



" To hold kings captive, as I have done before ; to conquer new Incas, 
and to guard them in their own temples. You say that the temples of gold 
are on the hills of the Ocali." 

" I said that there were dark rivers to cross." 

" But what Indian girl is this that follows you?" 

" She is the daughter of a cacique and my wife." 

" You must leave her behind." 

" She saved my life. Listen ! My name is Otiz, and I am a trusty soldier. 
When I found myself left by the expedition, I sought the friendship of the 
cacique. The old chief pitied me, and received me as 
his son. I found him more humane than our own 
people had been. I was happy for a time, but these 
children of the palm-lands are jealous and supersti- 
tious, and they at last began to distrust me and look 
upon me as dangerous, and they sought to kill me. I 
was brought before a council of their wise men, and 
was condemned to die. The cacique pitied me still, 
and sought to save me ; but the wise men were all against 
me. 

" The day for my death was appointed. I was to 




be tortured. A scaffold was built over faggots that 



DE SOTO. 



were to be made sacrificial fires. I was to be stretched 
upon this scaffold, and to perish at a fire-dance. 

" The day came. I was led out, and tied to the trees of the scaffold. The 
fires were kindled under me, and the dance began. The painted savages 
circled around me to the sound of war-drums and the blowing of shells. May 
you never suffer such tortures as I then was made to feel! The tongues of 
flame pierced my naked body like swords. My nerves crept in agony. I 
thought of Spain, of my kindred and my old home. I cried out for water. 

" The daughter of the cacique heard my cry. She fell down before her 
father, and begged him to spare my life. The cacique loved this beautiful girl. 
He listened to her; he appeased the tribe, and unbound me, and gave me to 
the tender princess as her slave. 

" She came to love me, as I served her faithfully. I arose to honor among 
the people. I love this people ; and if I leave my wife here, I must return to her 
again. I must be true to her on the honor of a conquistador." 

Fernando de Soto was a proud man. He had come from the conquest of 
the incarial realms, and his own share of the captured wealth had been millions. 
He had landed near Tampa, with a cavalcade of golden cavaliers. He did not 
doubt that another Peru lay before him. 



26o 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



The conquistadors under the lead of Ortiz marched up the hills of the 
Ocali. The land blazed in the pure white sunlight ; but no golden domes 
gleamed in the sun. 

They chained caciques, and hunted the chief men of the region with the 
bloodhounds. They compelled captive chiefs to guide them from one tribe to 
another. De Soto made slave wives of beautiful princesses, and amid all his 
cruelty and wrong-doing compelled masses to be said. 

" The hills of the Ocali are not Peru," he said to Ortiz. 

" I said that there were dark rivers to cross." 




DE SOTO S EXPEDITION IN FLORIDA. 



The conquistadors moved on. They came to dark rivers and cypress 
swamps. One after another of the golden cavaliers began to sicken and die. 

" There are indeed dark rivers to cross," said De Soto. 

The palm lances burned in the feverish heats. But the thirst for gold led 
the conquistadors on. They came at last to the banks of a majestic river. 
The volume of water showed that it must be long. Masses were said. The 
visions of De Soto were revived again: " The river is dark and long." 

They crossed it, and lay down under the live-oaks streaming with moss. 
The air was full of birds. There was beauty everywhere ; but in all the bright- 
ness lurked poison, — the men sickened and died. 



M/SS/SS/PPf DA)' 



261 



But the expedition moved on. The river that they had seen, and discov- 
ered to be dark and long, was the Mississippi. In the fevered pahn-shadcs 
appeared no temples or incarial palaces. 

They came i\t last to the dark land of cypresses through which flows the 
Red River of the South, Here De Soto himself began to feci the chill that 
had swept so many of the other adventurers away. 

He lay down amid burning heats, 
and was cold. 

" Ortiz, there are still dark rivers to 
cross? " 

"Yes, cavalier; dark rivers lie in 
the way to the cities of gold." 

De Soto shook. 



" The fever is on 
me." 

He lay burning 
and freezing in the 
cypress swamps. 
Prayers were said, 
and the fiery days 
moved on. The 
sun rose in fire, 
and set in what 
looked to be the 
conflagration oi 
The fires of the fever were con- 




DE SOTO SEEING THE MISSIS 
SIPPI FOR THE FIRST TIME. 



the world. De Soto became oblivious to all 

suming him. One flaming sunrise came, and he was dead. 

" He has crossed the dark river," said Ortiz. They hollowed a log for his 
body. But the savages were watching them. They could not give the conquis- 
tador a burial that would be undisturbed on the land ; even amid the gray- 
bearded cypresses. 

" Let us sink him for his final rest in the dark river," said Ortiz. 

They did so by night. Torches gleamed ; silent prayers were said. There 
were low beatings of oars; a rest in the black river under the moon and stars; 
a splash ; the dark river opened, and a body went down. It was De Soto's. 

In a white temple in Havana, which is only opened once a year, the picture 
of De Soto may be seen among the heroes of the Great Discovery. On the 
14th of November — Columbus Day in Cuba — a great procession leaves the 
old faded cathedral, in the wall of the altar of which Columbus's remains arc 



262 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



entombed, and amid chanting choirs, miHtary music, and the booming of the 
guns from the Castle, march to this white temple, and h&VQ glorias are chanted, 
and thanksgivings said. The procession moves through the chapel, which is 




BURIAL OF DE SOTO. 



shaded by a tree which is supposed to be a remnant of the grove where 
Columbus himself stood. They look upon the pictured faces of the conquis- 
tadors on that one day ; and the American, who follows the banners and music, 
gazes also, and wishes in his heart that some of these heroes whose bravery 
rendered such services to his country had been better men. Character is 
everything. 




CHAPTER XV. 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 




T had been the intention of the class to ^o to 

Tampa, and thence to Havana, cross the island 

of Cuba, a ten hours' ride (fare $i6), and take the 

Ward Line of steamers at Cienfuegos for Nassau. 

The Ward Line of steamers from New York to 

Cienfuegos via Nassau passes close to the two 

disputed islands of the discovery, — San Salvador 

and Watling. There is little to be seen on these islands now, and 

tlie view of them from the steamer deck reveals nearly all the remains 

of historical interest. 

But at St. Augustine, Florida, the plan was changed. Mr. Green 
found at this old city of beautiful Spanish hotels a friend by the name 
of Watson, who owned a steam yacht. Mr. Watson was a New York 
merchant, of ample means and with a large heart, and a lively sense 
of friendship. He became greatly interested in the plan and purpose 
of the class. 

" Friend Green," said he, one morning, " don't go to the islands 
by the way of Cienfuegos: I will take you to Nassau in my yacht. 
You can there take the Ward Line steamer for Santiago dc Cuba and 
Cienfuegos. It passes the islands of the discovery in the daytime, 
and usually in calm water. From Cienfuegos you can cross by rail 
to Havana, and so end your journey at the Park of Isabella and the 
Tomb of Columbus. I can accommodate your whole party, if you will 



264 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



siibnnt to a little crowding. The passage will be a safe one. I have 
made it before." 

The class gladly accepted Mr. Watson's hearty invitation. 

Delightful were the days that the 
class spent at St. Augustine, — the 
traditional landing-place of the ro- 
mantic old cavalier, Ponce de Leon. 




A BIT OF FLORIDA. 



The Spanish hotels here are among the most beautiful public houses 
in the world. They form as it were a Spanish town of the Middle 
Ages. Here the odors of rose gardens and orange groves flood the 
air, and the soft sea-winds play among the mosses of the trees. They 
studied old Fort Maria, with its thrilling traditions and antiquities. 

Arthur here found such stores of curios for his home museum 
that his collections took his last dollar. The narrow streets of St. 
Augustine are full of stores that offer souvenirs to tourists. They 
are in this respect the most tempting places we have ever visited. 
These curios or souvenirs consist of shells, sea-mosses, historic relics, 
Mexican images, grass-work, and live alligators. 

The shells delighted Arthur. They were the most curious and 
Iicautiful that he had ever seen. He purchased many varieties, and as 




SCENES IN FLORIDA. 



AMONG THE TSLAXDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 



267 



many kinds of sea-mosses. After his money was gone, he went to 
his father to ask a new and generous supply. 

" Shoo, lad," said hearty Captain Watson ; " I 'U show you, when 
we are afloat, how to get sea curiosities for nothing ! " 

"How would you do it?" asked Arthur, his own curiosity beino- 
at once excited. 

" Set snares for them." 

Arthur's wonder grew: to collect airios was his life, and nothing 
interested him so much as how to find new and rare things. 

" I will tell you. I have some lead-sinkers with hollow bottoms 
on my yacht. Fill the hollows with soap, and let them down into 




THE OLD GATE, ST. AUGUSTINE. 



the sea in shallow water, and you can secure curiosities enough in 
one voyage to the Bahamas to fill a room. Fish for timn ; that is 
the way to do it." 

This was joyful intelligence to Arthur. He saw the plan, and 
thanked the captain. Nor was he disappointed. He fished for 
specimens in this way wherever there was shallow water, and his 



268 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



discoveries in the beds of the Bahama seas were more to him than 
Columbus's among the islands of the seaweeds, or Saragossa seas. 

Mr. Green had prepared a literary entertainment for all the 
journey. He studied the historical colorings of all the places that the 




THE ARGONAUT. 



class expected to visit ; and his literary " lunch basket," as he called 
one of his trunks, was stored with books, magazines, and poems that 
related to the places of the tour. 

Among these stores was a very interesting and rare letter. It was 
originally written in Latin, and had been issued by the Boston Public 




A LIGHTHOUSE ON THE FLORIDA COAST. 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 27 1 

Library, in one of the catalogues of the institution. It was the story 
of the Discovery as related by Columbus, and was the narrative 
selected for the use of the European courts. It contained some pictur- 
esque accounts of the isle of J nana, and recalled in this way the 
unhappy daughter of Isabella. This letter, as follows, Mr. Green read 
to the class, on departing for the Bahama Seas. 

FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 

A Letter addressed to the noble Lord Raphael Sanchez, Treasurer to their invincible Majesties, 
Ferdinand and Isabella^ King and Queen of Spain, by Christopher Columbus, to 
whom our age is greatly indebted, treating of the islands of India recently discovered 
beyond the Ganges, to explore ivhich he had been sent eight months before under the 
auspices and at the expense of their said Majesties. 

Knowing that it will afford you pleasure to learn that I have brought my 
undertaking to a successful termination, I have decided upon writing you this 
letter to acquaint you with all the events which have occurred in my voyage, 
and the discoveries which have resulted from it. Thirty-three days after my 
departure from Cadiz,^ I reached the Indian sea, where I discovered many 
islands, thickly peopled, of which I took possession without resistance in the 
name of our most illustrious Monarch, by public proclamation and with un- 
furled banners. To the first of these islands, which is called by the Indians 
Guanahani, I gave the name of the blessed Saviour [San Salvador], relying 
upon whose protection I had reached this as well as the other islands ; to each 
of these I also gave a name, ordering that one should be called Santa Maria 
de la Conccpcion,^ another Fernandina,^ the third Isabella,^ the fourth Juana,*^ 

' Mr. Major's translation of the letter itself is faithful to the text of this edition. Variations, 
however, exist in the title and colophon; no original, for instance, is to be found for the words 
"and Isabella" in the translated title. All notes, with the exception of the present one, are 
borrowed from Mr. Major. 

- A strange mistake has crept into the Latin versions of this letter ; in all the editions of 
which it is stated that Cadiz was the point from which Columbus sailed on his first voyage. 
In the journal of that voyage published by Mr. Navarrete, as well as in the accounts given by 
Don Fernando Columbus and all other historians, it is distinctly said that he sailed from Palos, 
on the 3d of August. The mistake evidently consists in the word " Gadibus " having been 
by some circumstance, at which we can only guess, carelessly exchanged for Gomera, whence 
Columbus started, according to the journal, on tlie Slh of September. 

2 North Caico. ■• Little Inagua. -' Great Inniiua. '^ Cuba. 



272 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



and so with all the rest respectively. As soon as we arrived at that, which as 
I have said was named Juana, I proceeded along its coast a short distance 
westward, and found it to be so large and apparently without termination, that 
I could not suppose it to be an island, but the continental province of Cathay. 
Seeing, however, no towns or populous places on the sea-coast, but only a few 
detached houses and cottages, with whose inhabitants I was unable to communi- 
cate, because they fled as soon as they saw us, I went further on, thinking that 
in my progress I should certainly find some city or village. At length, after 
proceeding a great way and finding that nothing new presented itself, and that 
the line of the coast was leading us northwards (which I wished to avoid, 
because it was winter, and it was my intention to move southward ; and because 
moreover the winds were contrary), I resolved not to attempt any further 
progress, but rather to turn back and retrace my course to a certain bay that 

I had observed, and from 
which I afterwards dis- 
patched two of our men 
to ascertain whether there 
were a king or any cities 
in that province. These 
men reconnoitred the 
country for three days, 
and found a most numer- 
ous population, and great 
numbers of houses, though 
small, and built without 
any regard to order ; with 
which information they 
returned to us. In the 
mean time I had learned 
from some Indians whom 
I had seized, that that 
country was certainly an 
island ; and therefore I 
sailed towards the east, 
coasting to the distance 
of three hundred and 
twenty-two miles, which 
brought us to the ex- 
tremity of it ; from this point I saw lying eastwards another island, fifty-four 




A^TO^'G THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 273 

miles distant from Juana, to which I gave the name of Espanola : ^ I went 
thither, and steered my course eastward as I had done at Juana, even to the 
distance of five hundred and sixty-four miles along the north coast. This said 
island of Juana is exceeding fertile, as indeed are all the others ; it is surrounded 
with many bays, spacious, very secure, and surpassing any that I have ever 
seen; numerous large and beautiful rivers intersect it, and it also contains 
many very lofty mountains. All these islands are very beautiful, and distin- 
guished by a diversity of scenery; they are filled with a great variety of trees 
of immense height, and which I believe to retain their foliage in all seasons; 
for when I saw them they were as verdant and luxuriant as they usually are 
in Spain in the month of May, — some of them were blossoming, some bearing 
fruit, and all flourishing in the greatest perfection, according to their respective 
stages of growth, and the nature and quality of each ; yet the islands are not 
so thickly wooded as to be impassable. The nightingale and various birds 
were singing in countless numbers, and that in November, the month in which 
I arriv'cd there. There are besides in the same island of Juana seven or eight 
kinds of palm-trees, which, like all the other trees, herbs, and fruits, considera- 
bly surpass ours in height and beauty. The pines also are very handsome, 
and there are very extensive fields and meadows, a variety of birds, ditTerent 
kinds of honey, and many sorts of metals, but no iron. In that island also 
which I have before said we named Espanola, there are mountains of very 
great size and beauty, vast plains, groves and very fruitful fields, admirably 
adapted for tillage, pasture, and habitation. The convenience and excellence 
of the harbors in this island, and the abundance of the rivers, so indispensable 
to the health of man, surpass anything that would be believed by one who had 
not seen it. The trees, herbage, and fruits of Espanola are very different from 
those of Juana, and moreover it abounds in various kinds of spices, gold, and 
other metals. The inhabitants of both sexes in this island and in all the others 
which I have seen, or of which I have received information, go always naked 
as they were born, with the exception of some of the women, who use the 
covering of a leaf, or small bough, or an apron of cotton which they prepare 
for that purpose. None of them, as I have already said, are possessed of any 
iron, neither have they weapons, being unacquainted with, and indeed incom- 
petent to use them, not from any deformity of body (for they are well formed), 
but because they are timid and full of fear. They carry however in lieu of 
arms canes dried in the sun, on the ends of which they fix heads of dried 
wood sharpened to a point, and even these they dare not use habitually; for 

' Hispaniola, or San Domingo. 
18 



274 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

it has often occurred when I have sent two or three of my men to any of the 
villao-es to speak with the natives, that they have come out in a disorderly 
troop, and have fled in such haste at the approach of our men, that the fathers 
forsook their children and the children their fathers. This timidity did not 
arise from any loss or injury that they had received from us ; for, on the 
contrary, I gave to all I approached whatever articles I had with me, such as 
cloth and many other things, taking nothing of theirs in return : but they are 
naturally timid and fearful. As soon however as they see that they are safe, 
and have laid aside all fear, they are very simple and honest, and exceedingly 
liberal with all they have ; none of them refusing anything they may possess 
when he is asked for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. They 
exhibit great love towards all others in preference to themselves : they also 
give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little 
or nothing in return. I however forbad that these trifles and articles of no 
value (such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather straps) 
should be given to them, although if they could obtain them, they imagined 
themselves to be possessed of the most beautiful trinkets in the world. It 
even happened that a sailor received for a leather strap as much gold as was 
worth three golden nobles, and for things of more trifling value offered by our 
men, especially newly coined blancas, or any gold coins, the Indians would 
give whatever the seller required ; as, for instance, an ounce and a half or two 
ounces of gold, or thirty or forty pounds of cotton, with which commodity 
they were already acquainted. Thus they bartered, like idiots, cotton and 
gold for fragments of bows, glasses, bottles, and jars ; which I forbad as being 
unjust, and myself gave them many beautiful and acceptable articles which 1 
had brought with me, taking nothing from them in return ; I did this in order 
that I might more easily conciliate them, that they might be led to become 
Christians, and be inclined to entertain a regard for the King and Queen, our 
Princes and all Spaniards, and that I might induce them to take an interest 
in seeking out and collecting, and delivering to us such things as they possessed 
in abundance, but which we greatly needed. They practise no kind of idola- 
try, and have a firm belief that all strength and power, and indeed all good 
things, are in heaven, and that I had descended from thence with these ships 
and sailors; and under this impression was I received after they had thrown 
aside their fears. Nor are they slow or stupid, but of very clear understanding; 
and those men who have crossed to the neighbouring islands give an admirable 
description of everything they observed ; but they never saw any people 
clothed, nor any ships like ours. On my arrival at that sea, I had taken some 
Indians by force from the first island that I came to, in order that they might 




A GLIMPSE OF FLORIDA. 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 277 

learn our language, and communicate to us what they knew respecting the 
country; which plan succeeded excellently, and was a great advantage to us, 
for in a short time, either by gestures and signs or by words, we were enabled 
to understand each other. These men are still travelling with me, and although 
they have been with us a long time, they continue to entertain the idea that I 
have descended from heaven; and on our arrival at any new place they pub- 
lished this, crying out immediately with a loud voice to the other Indians, 
" Come, come and look upon beings of a celestial race : " upon which both 
men and women, children and adults, young men and old, when they got rid of 
the fear they at first entertained, would come out in throngs, crowding the roads 
to see us, some bringing food, others drink, with astonishing affection and 
kindness. Each of these islands has a great number of canoes, built of solid 
wood, narrow and not unlike our double-banked boats in length and shape, 
but swifter in their motion ; they steer them only by the oar. These canoes 
are of various sizes, but the greater number are constructed with eigliteen 
banks of oars, and with these they cross to the other islands, which are of 
countless number, to carry on traffic with the people. I saw some of these 
canoes that held as many as seventy-eight rowers. In all these islands there 
is no difference of physiognomy, of manners, or of language, but they all 
clearly understand each other, a circumstance very propitious for the realiza- 
tion of what I conceive to be the principal wish of our most serene King, 
namely, the conversion of these people to the holy faith of Christ, to which, 
indeed, as far as I can judge, they are very favourable and well-disposed. I 
said before, that I went three hundred and twenty-two miles in a direct line 
from west to east, along the coast of the island of Juana; judging by which 
voyage, and the length of the passage, I can assert that it is larger than Eng- 
land and Scotland united ; for independent of the said three hundred and 
twenty-two miles, there are in the western part of the island two provinces 
which I did not visit; one of these is called by the Indians Anam, and its 
inhabitants are born with tails. These provinces extend to a hundred and 
fifty-three miles in length, as I have learnt from the Indians whom I have 
brought with me, and who are well acquainted with the country. But the 
extent of Espanola is greater than all Spain from Catalonia to Fontarabia, 
which is easily proved, because one of its four sides which I myself coasted in 
a direct line, from west to east, measures five hundred and forty miles. This 
island is to be regarded with especial interest, and not to be slighted ; for 
although as I have said I took possession of all these islands in the name of 
our invincible King, and the government of them is unreservedly committed 
to his said Majesty, yet there was one large town in Espanola of which espe- 



278 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

cially I took possession, situated in a remarkably favourable spot, and in every 
way convenient for the purposes of gain and commerce. To this town I gave 
the name of Nabidad del Senor, and ordered a fortress to be built there, which 
must by this time be completed, in which I left as many men as I thought 
necessary, with all sorts of arms, and enough provisions for more than a year. 
I also left them one carabel, and skilful workmen both in ship-building and 
other arts, and engaged the favour and friendship of the island in their behalf, 
to a decree that would not be believed, for these people are so amiable and 
friendly that even the King took a pride in calling me his brother. But sup- 
posing their feelings should become changed, and they should wish to injure 
those who have remained in the fortress, they could not do so, for they have 
no arms, they go naked, and are moreover too cowardly; so that those who 
hold the said fortress, can easily keep the whole island in check, without any 
pressing danger to themselves, provided they do not transgress the directions 
and regulations which I have given them. As far as I have learned, every 
man throughout these islands is united to but one wife, with the exception of 
the kings and princes, who are allowed to have twenty : the women seem to 
work more than the men. I could not clearly understand whether the people 
possess any private property, for I observed that one man had the charge of 
distributing various things to the rest, but especially meat and provisions and 
the like. I did not find, as some of us had expected, any cannibals amongst 
them, but on the contrary men of great deference and kindness. Neither are 
they black, like the Ethiopians: their hair is smooth and straight: for they 
do not dwell where the rays of the sun strike most vividly, — and the sun has 
intense power there, the distance from the equinoctial line being, it appears, 
but six and twenty degrees. On the tops of the mountains the cold is very 
great, but the effect of this upon the Indians is lessened by their being accus- 
tomed to the climate, and by their frequently indulging in the use of very hot 
meats and drinks. Thus, as I have already said, I saw no cannibals, nor did 
I hear of any, except in a certain island called Charis,^ which is the second 
from Espanola on the side towards India, where dwell a people who are con- 
sidered by the neighbouring islanders as most ferocious: and these feed upon 
human flesh. The same people have many kinds of canoes, in which they 
cross to all the surrounding islands and rob and plunder wherever they can ; 
thuy are not different from the other islanders, except that they wear their 
hair long, like women, and make use of the bows and javelins of cane, with 
sharpened spear-points fixed on the thickest end, which I have before described, 

' Query, Carib, the Indian name of Porto Rico. 




FLORIDA, THE HOME OF THE HERON. 



AMOA'G THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 281 

and therefore they are looked upon as ferocious and rec,^ardcd by the other 
Indians with unbounded fear; but I think no more of them than of the rest. 
These are the men who form unions with certain women, who dwell alone in 
the island Matenin/ which lies next to Espanola on the side towards India; 
these latter employ themselves in no labour suitable to their own sex, for they 
use bows and javelins as I have already described their paramours as doing, 
and for defensive armour have plates of brass, of which metal they possess 
great abundance. They assure me that there is another island larger than 
Espanola, whose inhabitants have no hair, and which abounds in gold more 
than any of the rest. I bring with me individuals of this island and of the 
others that I have seen, who are proofs of the facts which I state. Finally, 
to compress into few words the entire summary of my voyage and speedy 
return, and of the advantages derivable therefrom, I promise, that with a little 
assistance afforded me by our most invincible sovereigns, I will procure them 
as much gold as they need, as great a quantity of spices, of cotton, and of mastic 
(which is only found in Chios), and as many men for the service of the navy as 
their Majesties may require. I promise also rhubarb and other sorts of drugs, 
which I am persuaded the men whom I have left in the aforesaid fortress have 
found already and will continue to find ; for I myself have tarried nowhere 
longer than I was compelled to do by the winds, except in the city of Nabidad, 
where I provided for the building of the fortress, and took the necessary 
precautions for the security of the men I left there. Although all I have 
related may appear to be wonderful and unheard of, yet the results of my 
voyage would have been more astonishing if I had at my disposal such ships as 
I required. But these great and marvellous results are not to be attributed to 
any merit of mine, but to the holy Christian faith, and to the piety and religion 
of our Sovereigns ; for that which the unaided intellect of man could not compass, 
the spirit of God has granted to human exertions, for God is wont to hear the 
prayers of his servants who love his precepts even to the performance of 
apparent impossibilities. Thus it has happened to me in the present instance, 
who have accomplished a task to which the powers of mortal men had never 
hitherto attained ; for if there have been those who have anywhere written or 
spoken of these islands, they have done so with doubts and conjectures, and 
no one has ever asserted that he has seen them, on which account their writings 
have been looked upon as little else than fables. Therefore let the king and 
queen, our princes and our most happy kingdoms, and all the other provinces 
of Christendom, render thanks to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who 

^ One of the Virgin Islands — whicli, is uncertain. 



282 ZIGZAG JOURA^YS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

has granted us so great a victory and such prosperity. Let processions 
be made, and sacred feasts be held, and the temples be adorned with festive 
boughs. Let Christ rejoice on earth, as he rejoices in heaven at the prospect 
of the salvation of the souls of so many nations hitherto lost. Let us also 
rejoice, as well on account of the exaltation of our faith, as on account of the 
increase of our temporal prosperity, of which not only Spain, but all Christen- 
dom will be partakers. 

Such are the events which I have briefly described. Farewell. 

Lisbon, the 14th of March. 

Christopher Columbus, 

Admiral of the Fleet of the Ocean. 



A CURIOUS SPANISH LEGEND OF THE DISCOVERY. 

There is in Spain a very picturesque legend of an event that led 
to the Great Discovery, which if of less educational value than the 
story of the egg, is worth repeating here. 

After Columbus had spent some seven years in endeavors to 
secure the patronage of the Court of Spain, he resolved to leave that 
country, and to lay his plans before Charles VI 1 1, of France. He 
accordingly called on Ferdinand and Isabella, to announce his purpose 
and to take a formal leave of the Court. The legend says that this 
took place at Cordova, though there would seem to be some historical 
difficulty with this statement. 

Columbus found the King at a game of chess with his grandees. 
The game had become very absorbing, and the heart of the King- 
seemed to have entered into it. 

Columbus obtained an audience with Queen Isabella. Her heart 
was already committed to the great expedition, and when he 
announced to her his purpose of going to France, she at once 
.sought the King, and found him absorbed at the chess-board. 

She forced the matter on his attention. 

" Do not interrupt me," he said. " Confound these visionary 
mariners, and of all of them confound this Italian Columbus!" 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 



28 



She stood silent; the game grew worse for the King, and he 
became much excited. On the point of what seemed utter failure, he 
turned to Isabella, and said, — 

" If I win the game, you may have the ships for your adventure." 
The Queen's mind had been intent on the chess-board, and the 




RELICS OF COLUMBUS. 



game went on. The Oueen became as excited as the Kingr. At last 
she leaned over his shoulder and said, — 

" You can checkmate him in four more moves." 

She was right. The King won the game triumphantly, and turn- 
ino: to Isabella said, — 



284 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



" Columbus may go ; I will commission him as Admiral of the 
Elect." 

We give this story as a legend merely. It would make a pretty 
tableau. 

The voyage to Nassau on the yacht was a delight. The sky was 
serene, the sea blue, and the winds were merciful. The class read and 




NASSAU HARROR. 



related stories, or listened to the tales of Captain Watson ; and Arthur 
fished with his lead and soap, and in deep water prepared his 
specimens. 



AMONG THE /SL.UVDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 2S5 

His delight in this voyage was made perfect when a fish came 
flying on board. 

He secured some beautiful specimens of the chambered nautilus 
at several points of the voyage. In the clear green waters off the 
Bahamas the ocean seemed to offer him everything that his imagina- 
tion could picture or his heart could wish. 

The class rested for several days at Nassau, and there waited the 
steamer from New York. 

Arthur visited the sea gardens at Nassau. The emerald waters 
here are a world of life as clear as the air and as beautiful as the sky. 
He obtained a large collection of corals and shells and sponges in 
these towns of the turtles. He also purchased a tarantula in a bottle 
at the hotel. 

Mr. Green pursued his literary and historical studies at Nassau as 
studiously as Arthur sought after curious specimens of life in the sea. 

One day Arthur said to him : " We are told that Columbus caused 
a hymn to be sung on the ships on every night of the outward voyage. 
What was that hymn ? " 

" I have asked that question myself," said Mr. Green. " Accord- 
ing to the ancient authorities, it was the ' Salve, Regina,' a Latin hymn 
of great strength and beauty. But the popular tradition says that it 
was ' Gentle Star of Ocean.' The ' Salve, Regina ' is a composition that 
is rare, but the hymn called ' Gentle Star of Ocean ' may be found in 
many Catholic collections of hymns. The general thought and prayer 
of each is the same, though the form is different, and one may have 
grown out of the other. Mrs. Hemans's ' Italian Girl's Hymn to the 
Virgin' bears a marked resemblance to ' Gentle Star of Ocean.' 

" Read to me the hymn called ' Gentle Star of Ocean,' " said 
Arthur, "as that is the traditional Columbus Hymn." 

Mr. Green read the common version. 



286 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



AVE MARIS STELLA.' 

Gentle Star of Ocean ! 

Portal of the sky ! 
Ever Virgin Mother 

Of the Lord most high ! 

Oh ! by Gabriel's Ave, 

Utter'd long ago, 
Eva's name reversing, 

'Stablish peace below. 

Break the captive's fetters, 

Light on blindness pour, 
All our ills expelling. 

Every bliss implore. 

Show thyself a Mother, 

Offer him our sighs. 
Who for us Incarnate 

Did not thee despise. 

Virgin of all virgins ! 

To thy shelter take us ; 
Gentlest of the gentle, 

Chaste and gentle make us. 

Still as on we journey. 

Help our weak endeavor; 
Till with thee and Jesus 

We rejoice forever. 

Through the highest heaven, 

To the Almighty Three, 
Father, Son, and Spirit, 

One same glory be. 

Another question asked by Arthur received an interesting answer 
rn)m liis father. 

" Why was not America called Columbia.^ " 

' The evening hymn of the crews of Columbus, sung on every night during the outward voyage, was 
tlic " Ave Maris Stella." 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 289 

" The continent of America seems to have been discovered by 
Americus Vespucius, or Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer, at 
Para, or near the island of Trinidad. This bold mariner explored the 
coast of Brazil, and on his return published a chart that greatly inter- 
ested geographers. One of these geographers applied the name 
' Americi Terra,' or the land of Americus, or Amerigo, to the dis- 
covered continent, and other writers employed this same name. So 
the New World became known in Europe as the land of Amerigo, or 
America. Vespucci was a friend of Columbus, and had no purpose to 
deprive him of the honors due to his achievements. The name was 
the result of accidental usage. Had the geographer put upon his 
map or chart ' The Land of Columbus,' we would have now been the 
inhabitants of Columbia." 

The hotel at Nassau is beautifully situated, and the hours spent 
here seemed to the class as almost beyond the usual horizons of life. 
The sk)^ the sea, the sea gardens, — everything had an air of bright 
serenity about them. Most of the members of the class read and 
studied, as a preparation to passing the Islands and visiting the Tomb 
at Havana. 

Mrs. Green related here some beautiful stories of scenes at the 
Court of Isabella. Mr. Diaz endeavored to picture in verse the scene 
at Palos on the return of Columbus. He read the description to the 
class ; and we hope it was historic, for it aimed to make picturesque a 
very thrilling event : — 

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING. 

In Granada bells were ringing, 

In Granada altars burned, 
Heralds swept on palfreys gleaming, 
Shouting : " Praise the Lord forever, 

Colon, Colon has returned ! " 
Open stood the church of Palos, 
Struck the bells, now loud, now low; 
Landward, off tiie Gaudiana. 
Higher rose the star-crowned banner, 
19 



2QO ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Neared the acclaiming port of Palos, 
Neared tlie weeping port of Palos, 
Ancient Palos, 

Long ago. 

Higher rose the sea-wet banner 

While the far hills smoked and burned, 

And the couriers, trumpets blowing, 

Shouted : " Praise to Isabella; 
Colon, Colon has returned ! " 

Shone the smoke-red sun on Palos, 

In the seas of clouds aglow ; 

And the flag of crowns grew clearer, 

As the caravel drew nearer 

The acclaiming port of Palos, 

The rejoicing port of Palos, 
Ancient Palos, 

Long ago. 

Lands the viceroy, throngs acclaiming, 

Walks the time-worn streets again, 
Hears the gray cathedral's towers. 
Answers : " Praise the Lord forever, 

Hither, mariners of Spain ! " 
To the church with open portals. 
Glad bells ringing, blow on blow, 
Andalusian banners under. 
Leads he, 'mid the eyes of wonder. 
All his faithful men through Palos, 
All his sun-browned crew through Palos, 
Ancient Palos, 

Long ago. 

Hark, — what music fills the temple ! 

Stops his feet beside the door ? 
" Hush ! — they sing the hymn of Mary. - 
Listen, sailors of Hispania, 

Praise the Lord forevermore ! " 
Far within the church they heard it. 
The Magnificat sung low ; 
Heard: "The humble He upraiseth," 
Heard : " His holpen servant praiseth," - 
As uprose the hymn of Mary, 
Far within the church of Palos, 
Ancient Palos, 

Long ago. 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 293 

GroinM aisle and mullioned window, 

Choir escutcheoned, golden cross, 
Met his eye as there he listened ; .1 

Tonsured monks from old Cordova, 

Palmers gray from Badajos, 
Singers sweet from sweet Sevilla, 
'Neath Uie altar lamp aglow, 
'Mid the odorous oil ascending, 
Like the fiery cloud attending 
Israel's march of trump and censer, 
O'er the great sea of the Desert, — 
So he listened, 

Long ago. 

On the cool quays of Genoa, 

Once that anthem he had heard. 
As the night stars gleamed above him, 
And the palaced air around him 

Seemed by mystic angels stirred, 
Was the earth a star, like Hesper, 
In the halls of space aglow ? — 
While those prisoned monks were chanting 
What strange prophecies came haunting 
His young soul in old Genoa, 
On the cool quays of Genoa, 
White Genoa, 

Long ago ? 

Now — how grand the monks were singing 

That same hymn of hope again ! — 
" Ho, — advance, lead on the banner 
Of the crown of Isabella ; • 

Forward, mariners of Spain!" 
And the viceroy at the altar. 
Kneeling by his captives low. 
Bowed to praise the Lord of heaven. 
For the world that he had given 
To the sceptre of Fernando, 
To the crowns of Isabella, 
To the cross of Christ forever ! 
So arose the First Thanksgiving, • 
For the New World, 
Lon<r a£0 ! 



294 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

The captain interested Arthur greatly by telling him of the capture 
by a French steamer of a large Cuttle-fish, or Devil Fish as it is often 
called. 

These monsters, full-grown, are so seldom seen that everything 
relating to them inspires one with a deep feeling of awe. 

Arthur had found tanks of little alligators in several stores in 
St. Augustine. These little alligators were offered for sale, and by pay- 
ing one dollar and expressage, one of them would be forwarded to the 
North to any address. He had expressed two of these to young 
friends of his in Massachusetts as a surprise. 

He talked of this curious matter often, and once in the presence of 
Captain Watson. The Captain was interested in the novel surprise, 
and related the following story: — 

A PRESENT OF AN ALLIGATOR.^ 

There were so many curiosities in St. Augustine and the rest of Florida 
that Dr. James Munro, amateur naturalist, conchologist, and entomologist, had 
found the days all too short for his delightful work. 

The trip undertaken for his health, exhausted as he was by his professional 
hibors, not only accomplished the desired end, but gave him an opportunity of 
riding his scientific hobby to his heart's content. 

He was an excellent and successful physician ; but I doubt if his most 
extraordinary cases awakened the keen interest which the discovery of a new 
specimen gave him. And there was his friend. Professor Virchow, of the 
Lincoln Institute, so grateful to him for the rare insects, and shells, and skeletons 
of extinct animals he had sent him. 

In fact, in the pamphlet on which the professor was engaged, he had spoken 
with warm gratitude of Dr. Munro as a scientific laborer whose researches had 
been invaluable to him. Grateful to the doctor was this incense, and it spurred 
him to fresh efforts. 

lie spent the winter in Florida, and spring found him turning his face 
homeward. He was strolling through Jacksonville when he was accosted by a 
dealer in many of the specimens which went to enrich the Lincoln Institute. 

' This story was suggc-sted by the author to Mrs. Murie B. Williams, who wrote it. It 
originally appeared in the " Household." 




CArTURI.NG A CUTTLE-I-ISH. 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 297 

" Halloo, doctor," he cried; " I 've got something at my place you've been 
wanting for ever so long. 

"What's that, Collins?" 

" Come along and see." 

Collins took him to a large tank back of his warehouse. A large alligator, 
with a young one frisking about on the water, greeted the doctor's delighted 
eyes. 

" There 's your baby alligator, doc', that you 've been honing for ever since 
you came to Florida. It 's a frisky little creature, ain't it? and it'll make the 
nicest kind of a pet for a year or two. If you don't want him, there's been 
three fellows from Boston who do ; but I promised you the first 'gator that come 
to hand, and here he is." 

" Of course I want him ; " and the doctor gazed ecstatically at the playful 
young saurian. " Are you sure, Collins, you can bo.x him up so that he '11 
reach New York alive and safe?" 

" Alive and safe ! " exclaimed Collins, laughing. " Why, doctor, I 've 
shipped hundreds of alligators, big and little, to the North, and I 've never 
heard that one of them died on the way. But look here ; let 's strike a bargain. 
I 'm expecting three or four big fellows, and I '11 be glad to get the mother 
'gator out of the way. They 're ugly customers when they have young ones, 
and I'm afraid she'll fight the strangers. Come now, take the mother 'gator, 
and I '11 let you have them both at a bargain." 

The doctor pondered a moment. What a boon the alligators would be 
to his friend Virchow, who was now engaged in writing up the habits of 
saurians ! 

"Well, I'll take her, Collins," the doctor said at last, "if you guarantee 
she '11 arrive in good condition." 

What will a Florida dealer not guarantee, when he is making a trade with a 
Northern traveller crazy for the curious productions of that strange land? 
The trade was soon made, for the doctor was in a hurry. 

" I '11 have them ready for shipment this evening," Collins said. " Halloo, 
doctor, you 're going without giving me the address." 

" I'll be back in a couple of hours," the doctor called out. " I start home 
to-morrow myself, and I 've got to have a box of fruit packed and shipped to 
my family. I '11 get home in time to receive my alligator when it reaches 
New York." 

" Don't forget to come back," Collins called after him anxiously. He knew 
too well that the doctor was one of the most ab.sent-mindcd of men, and would 



298 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

forget his own head if it could be detached from his shoulders. It was there- 
fore a great relief to him, when, about noon, the doctor's bald head was popped 
into his office. 

" I 'm in the greatest possible hurry, Collins," he panted, " for I 'm off in a 
couple of hours. There's the address," pitching a card on the desk. " Good- 
by ; see you next winter, if I live." 

Dr. Munro's handsome house on Dash Street, New York, was one morning 
a scene of delightful anticipation. A telegram had been received from him — 
" Will be at home by noon train. Was detained a day at St. Augustine. 
Shipped large box of fruit." 

And the box of fruif had just been received, — a tremendous box, which 
took several men to drag into the basement, for it could not be carried up the 
staircase. And in the basement the family assembled, waiting for John, the 
carriage-driver, who had gone for an axe. 

" Oh, there 's barrels upon barrels of fruit in there ! " cried ten-year-old 
Mamie, clapping her hands, and dancing round the box. " Charlie, what did 
they bore all these holes in the box for?" 

" To keep the fruit from spoiling, goosey," answered Charhe, who was 
seventeen, and given to lording it over his sisters. 

" I dare say there 's mangoes and sapodillos and guavas in there," said Ella, 
a rather sentimental young miss. '* Papa said he would send us specimens of 
every species of Florida fruit. What a delicious fruity odor ! " snuffing the air. 
" I can close my eyes, and fancy myself under intense blue skies, and reciioing 
amidst the beautiful orange-groves of that lovely land." 

•' Mighty musky groves," Charlie answered. " Smells as if a catfish was 
somewhere round. Well, John, you 've been long enough after that hatchet. 
Get to opening it, will you? And Norah, you help him to prize off the 
lid." 

" Now, look here, children," cried Mrs. Munro, — a fat, comely dame, who 
bustled in, — " don't snatch the fruit when the box is opened. There 's enough 
and to Sparc for all. It 's just like your father to go and send a great box of 
fruit that will spoil on our hands." 

" And I 'm thinkin' it's spi'led already, ma'am," Norah said, pulling at the 
lid. " It smells like— Och, blessed saints ! " and with a loud screech she fell 
backwards as the lid came off, and a black monster, lifting his frightful snout in 
the air for a second, lurched heavily over the side of the box. 

Scrraming in every variety of key, the Munro family fled to the only door 
which would give them egress. 




A GIANT ALLIGATOR. 



AMONG THE ISLANDS OF THE GREAT DISCOVERY. 30I 

But between poor Norah and the door the liideous monster lay. There 
was a small window which opened on the sidewalk, the grating of which had 
been removed that morning for some repairs. Scrambling up with difficulty, 
Norah tried to push herself through. But the window was small, and Norah 
was stout, and she stuck. 

"Help, help! " she shouted. " Och, Mister Murphy," as a policeman ran 
to see what caused the uproar, " pull me out, darlint ; fur the fiery dragon is 
afther me. Och, he 's ate up all av 'em, pore crathurs ! Full me hard." And 
Mister Murphy pulled with such vim that he not only dislodged her, but 
brought her full weight upon him, and together they sprawled on the ground. 

He was up in a minute and peering through the window. 

" It's a big alligator, be jabers !" he exclaimed. " I 've seed 'em in Florida. 
Keep back! " — to the crowd who were pushing and fighting their way to the 
window. " He '11 get afther ye in a hurry." 

"What is all this?" and Dr. Munro, valise in hand, stood in the midst of 
them. " What are you crowding about my premises for?" 

" Oh, doctor, darlint! " Norah shouted to the astonished man, "the dragon 
has swallowed the misthress up. I heard her screech; and the poor childer — 
all gone ; all eat up. Oh, Holy Peter, comfort him ! " 

Dr. Munro rushed to the window and looked through. 

" How did the alligators get there?" he cried ; and then into his dazed mind 
a solution of the mystery crept. In his hurry he had given Collins the wrong 
card. 

" Are any of them hurt? " he groaned, as he sprang up the steps. His first 
glance at his demoralized household did not reassure him. His wife lay 
panting on the lounge. Ella was tapping her heels on the floor, and laughing 
and crying hysterically. Charlie, as white as a sheet, was going from one to 
the other with smelling-salts. Only little Mamie seemed to be herself 

" Oh, papa," she cried, catching sight of her father, "we thought the box 
had fruit, but it did n't. A great, horrid black thing come out, and we all run." 

" You 've done my nerves a terrible injury, James," said his wife, reproach- 
fully, "with your vile reptiles and things. What did you mean by sending 
them here? " 

The doctor tried to explain, and Ella ceased her tattoo on the floor to listen. 
Suddenly there was a loud pistol-shot. 

" Mercy !" cried Mrs. Munro, clutching her husband wildly ; "is that the 
alligator? " 

" It's the policeman shooting the alligator, I presume," he answered grimly. 



202 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" I saw him fixing his pistol ; but Norah gave me such a fright I did n't stop to 
see about it. Well, Virchow will have to do without it, unless he chooses to 
stuff the skin. I hope the idiot has n't shot the young one; " and he hurried 
down to see about his pet. 

It was months before the nerves of the family recovered their tone. 

" I 'm all in a trimble," Norah would say at every new smash of crockery 
from her awkward hands. " I drame about the monster, and when the rale box 
av fruit did came from the institute, I could n't eat one. On my word, they 
choked me." 



CHAPTER XVI. 



AT THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS. 




I HE Bahama Sea, or the sea of the Lesser Antilles, is 
beautiful in midwinter and early spring. The days 
here are living splendors, and at night the Southern 
Cross, like the jewelled hand of heaven, is lifted over 
the glimmering waves. The serenity of night among 
these islands is impressive. There is a spirit of 
beauty everywhere. One feels its presence as it were a guardian 
wing. 

The steamer passed full in view of San Salvador, — the old tradi- 
tional island of the Great Discovery, This island is about forty-three' 
miles long and three miles broad, and rises to the height of some four 
hundred feet. It does look to-day like the landfall described by 
Columbus. 

The true island of the discovery would seem to be Watling, 
This is thirteen miles long, and rises to a height of some one hundred 
and forty feet. Neither island has any considerable population. 
Each seems to form a part of a broken body of land, and stands far 
out at sea. Each is as white as snow. 

The situation of these two islands in the sea is beautiful ; but 
neither is so especially interesting as to answer to the Paradise pic- 
tured by the discoverers. One must see them with historic eyes for 
sentiment, and even then one looks in vain for any worthy monument 
of the great event that is associated with them. 



3o6 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



On to the beautiful harbor of Santiago, and then to Cienfuegos. 
A day from the latter port found the class in Havana, in the Hotel 
Pasaje. 

The first walk that the class took was to the statue of Isabella. 
An incident occurred here that interested Arthur. 

" A fine statue," said an English tourist to him, with a curious 
look in his benevolent face. " But I think that there was another 
woman that deserves a monument more than the 
Queen." 

" Do you } " asked Arthur, in surprise. " Who 
was it .? " 

" Mrs. Columbus." The portly old gentleman 
looked inquiringly and comically at Arthur. 

" I never heard of her^'' said Arthur. " Who 
was she t " 

" She died young, but it was she who interested 
him in the expedition. Boy, get a good wife, — 
that 's what does it." 

The fine old gentleman moved slowly away, 
leaving Arthur puzzled. That evening, at the 
Pasaje, he learned from his mother for the first 
time the touching story of the wife of Columbus, 
who brought the great mariner maps and charts, 
and interested him in lands that sailors had seen 
in the great ocean world. 

Arthur from his first landing at a Cuban port had been quick to 
catch Spanish words and phrases. He had in moments of rest studied 
the Spanish phrase-book in all the journey from Chicago. Of all the 
members of the party, except Mr. Green, teacher, and Mr. Diaz, he 
best understood the Spanish-speaking servants at the hotel. 

At a breakfast in the cafe, the party were surprised to hear Arthur 
say to a waiter who had asked him what he would have, — 




CUBAN BEGGAR. 






^m&^ss^^mm'^i^-'^ 



i'C' 1 







AT THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS. 



309 



" Huevos ? •' (Eggs ?) 

" Si, Senor," was the answer. 

*' Huevos con jamon ? " (Eggs and ham ?) 




STATUE OF COLUMBUS. 



" Si, Senor." The waiter added, — 
" Huevos rellenos?" (Stuffed eggs .f*) 

This last answer puzzled Arthur. Stuffed eggs was a dish un- 
known to him. He asked, — 



310 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

" Pescado frito ? " (Fried fish ?) 

" Si, Sefior." 

" Papas fritos? " (Fried potatoes ?) 

" Si, Sefior." 

" Plantanos? " (Bananas ?) 

Arthur was puzzled again, and still more so, when the waiter 
asked, — 

" Fritos ? " (Fried ? ) 

" No," said Arthur. 

" Asados.?" (Roasted.?) 

Bananas fried or roasted ! Arthur had never heard of such a dish 
before. 

Arthur finally ordered "polio asado " (roast chicken) and "bunia- 
tos" (sweet potatoes) and " cafe." 

These were quickly brought. The young ladies looked on with 
wonder, and each of them said, " Arthur, you may order for me! " 

Early in the morning after their arrival at Havana, the party went 
to the old Cathedral, where the remains of Columbus are supposed to 
be. It is now claimed that a wrong body was brought here, and that 
the bones of Columbus still lie in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. 
Be this as it may, the Cathedral of Havana is traditionally the tomb 
of the prophet pilot, and is justly regarded as one of the most sacred 
places of the world on account of that noble association. 

The old Cathedral stands facing an open square at the corner of 
Empedrado and San Ygnacio Streets, at the northeastern part of the 
city. It is constructed of a mellow-colored brown stone, and its two 
quaint towers each holding aloft a slender cross, its fa9ade of pillars, 
niches, mouldings, give it a historic and venerable appearance. It 
was erected in 1724. 

The church is shown to visitors at all hours of the day. It is well 
to visit it at the morning mass, when the white light falls upon the 
devotees and first illumines the beautiful shrines and chapels. 




A CUBAN BKAUTY. 



AT THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS. 313 

The remains of Columbus are in a simple but heroic tomb near 
the altar. Columbus died at Valladolid, Spain, on Ascension Day, 
May 20, 1506. His funeral was conducted with great pomp. His 
remains were removed to Seville in 15 13, and his tomb was honored 
by the following inscription, by order of Ferdinand and the Court : — 

"A Castile y Leon 

NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON." * 

He was mariner even after death. In 1536 his body and that of 
his son were removed to Santo Domingo, to rest in the New World 
that his inspiration had found. 

In 1796 his remains were embarked for Havana. 

It was a grand holiday when they arrived in port. A writer says, 
" Havana wept for joy." They were deposited in an urn in the cathe- 
dral, and a monumental bust placed before them. The appearance 
of the tomb may be imagined from the herewith illustration. 

COLUMBUS. 

" God made me the messenger of the new heavens and new earth, and told me where to find them. 
Reason, charts, and mathematical knowledge had nothing to do with the case." — Columbus. 

Here, 'mid these paradises of the seas, 

The roof beneath of this cathedral old. 
That lifts its suppliant arms above the trees. 

Each clasping in its hand a cross of gold, 

Columbus sleeps, — his crumbling tomb behold ! 
By faith his soul rose eagle-winged and free. 

And reached that Power whose wisdom never fails. 
Walked 'mid the kindred stars, and reverentlv 

The light earth weighed in Cod's own golden scales. 
A man of passions, like to men's, was he. 

He overcame them, and with hope and trust 
Made strong his soul for highest destiny, 
And, following Christ, he walked upon the sea : 

The waves upheld him, — what is here is dust. 

^ To Castile and Leon Coluinbus gave a new world. 



314 



ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 



" We shall be better able to appreciate the World's Fair after this 
journey," said Mr. Green, as the party went out of the Cathedral into 
the bright sun. " I am glad that we have made it." 




TOMB OF COLUMBUS AT HAVANA. 



" Mil gracias, Sehor," said Arthur. 

The class wandered back through white streets, and rested at noon 
under the palms near the Statue of Isabella. 

Here amid bright sea airs, and breathing palms, Arthur asked : 



AT THE 'TOMB OF COLUMBUS. 



315 



" Father, what were Columbus's own views of the powers that led 
him to make the great discovery? Did he think that he was a bold 
man, a great genius, or an inspired prophet ? " 

" Columbus," said Mr. Green, " once wrote to a family servant : ' I 
serve the same God that exalted David.' 

" Ao-ain in his ' Profecias,' he says, ' The Lord endowed me nobly 
with knowledge of everything relating to the sea.' 

" And ao-ain, in a letter to the Castilian sovereigns he said, ' God 




THE OLIJ CATHEDRAL, HAVANA. 



made me the messenger of the new heavens and new earth, and told 
me wiitjre to find them. Charts, maps, and mathematical knowledge 
had nothing to do with the case.' 

"So you well see Columbus thought that his ideas were divine 



3i6 ZIGZAG JOURNEYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 

inspirations. He once dreamed, as you have been told, that the 
Prophet Isaiah appeared to him, and he beheved in angelic sugges- 
tions. Whatever there may have been in these views, one thing is 
certain, that Columbus himself thought that an inward inspiration 
was his guide ; and for this gift he gave God the glory. It was follow- 
ing the inward spiritual light, and schooling the best gifts, and being 
true to his best self, that made Christopher Columbus the first man of 
his age and the leader of mankind." 

Genoa la Superba ! Genoa that rises white from the purple sea 
and covers the hills with churches and palaces ! 

There is one spot in Genoa to which all feet of travellers first turn. 
It is not to the white palaces, — not to the remains of royalty or knight- 
hood, or to any hall of art. It is to the Statue of Columbus, which is 
the pride of the city, and the crown of all the achievements of Italy : 
Columbus the mariner, Columbus the missionary, Columbus the vice- 
roy, Columbus the leader of the Progress of Mankind ! 

It is of white marble, and the legend on the face surface reads, — 
A Cristoforo Colombo, la Patria. 

Above the base rise four figures, representing Strength, Wisdom, 
Geography, and Religion. Between these figures are bas-reliefs of 
scenes in Columbus's life. Crowning the whole is the statue of him 
whom " God made the messenger of the New Heaven and the New 
Earth, and told where to find them." 

The tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella are in Granada. We have 
never seen them ; but the graceful and picturesque pen of Mrs. Louise 
Chandler Moulton thus describes them : " The Alhambra is Gra- 
nada; and yet if the Alhambra v^ere not there, how much else there 
would be ! 

" There is the Generaliffe, with its lovely tropical garden, its old 
pictures ; its superb view, and down in the town there are churches 
and convents, and the grand Cathedral where Isabella, the Catholic, 




GENERAL VIEW OF THE ALHAilHRA. 



AT THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS. 319 

— the sreat Isabella, who sent Columbus forth to find our New World, 

— lies buried, with her husband, King Ferdinand, beside her. Sump- 
tuous indeed is their tomb, with their efifigies resting side by side upon 
the lofty marble sarcophagus. Near by is the tomb of their daughter. 
Queen Juana, with her handsome, worthless husband, Philip of Bur- 
gundy ; and in the vault beneath, the four royal cofifins may be seen. 

" The coffin of Philip is that very one which his crazed, fond wife 
kept with her everywhere during the forty-seven years of her long 
widowhood." 

The most beautiful of Columbus's statues in America is on the 
Paseo, Mexico, and one of the most commanding is at St. Louis. 

Chicago will make her swift highway to the Gulf, and connect 
South America with her by Port Tampa; and Jackson Park will for- 
ever hold the grandest monuments to Columbus in the New World, 
and wear them like a crown at the head of that empire of noble energy, 

— the Great Mississippi Valley. It is the most earnest that wins: the 
men who dare and sail, and the cities that aspire, trust, and march. 

In the Art Museum, Boston, there is a delicate marble statue of 
a boy, which bears the title, " The Early Inspiration of Columbus." 
It represents the young mariner sitting abstracted on a pier-post in 
Genoa. The face is wonderfully beautiful, as one might fancy that 
of the young shepherd of Latmos when the goddess said to him, — 

" Endymion, one day thou shall be blessed." 

There is faith in the dream of that picture of marble. It recalls 
Columbus's words to the old nurse to whom he wrote: "I serve the 
same God that e.xalted David." Blessed is the youth that dreams 
and has faith in his dream. He shall be haunted by ideals that will 
change into realities. To such a one all things are possible. 

THE END. 



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